Hiromitsu Kadota: Third-All-Time Home Run Leader in NPB History
The Power Hitter Pantheon: Baseball’s Greatest Home Run Heroes
This project aims to determine the greatest home run hitter of all time by comparing each slugger’s statistics to the average of their era using three formulas. The final adjusted stats will then be used to compare them head-to-head with other all-time greats.
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Hiromitsu Kadota will be the next legendary Japanese League slugger examined in this study. For a brief career summary of Kadota, please click here.
According to Baseball Reference, Kadota’s official statistics reveal a total of 567 home runs over 8,868 at-bats resulting in an average of 15.64 at-bats per home run (AB/HR).
Hiromitsu Kadota competed in the Japanese Pacific League (JPPL) from 1970-1992. When aggregating the statistics from each of the seasons Kadota competed in, the league totals include 596,257 at-bats and 19,322 home runs, resulting in an average of 30.86 at-bats per home run (AB/HR).
With this data, we can evaluate how Kadota’s performance compared to the average Japanese League hitter of his era.
Raw Difference: 15.22
Formula: League Average – Player Career AverageImprovement Factor: 1.97
Formula: League Average / Player Career AveragePercentage Difference: 49.32%
Formula: (League Average – Player Career Average) / League Average × 100%
Kadota’s performance stands out when compared to the JPPL average over his career span. Kadota’s 15.64 AB/HR is significantly lower than the league’s 30.86 AB/HR. A lower AB/HR means he hit home runs more frequently—roughly twice as often as the average JPPL hitter during his era.
Raw Difference:
Kadota needed 15.22 fewer at-bats per home run than the league average.
Improvement Factor:
Kadota's I.F. of 1.97 indicates was nearly twice as efficient at hitting home runs compared to the league average.
Percentage Difference:
Kadota’s AB/HR was 49.32% better (lower) than the league average.
Hiromitsu Kadota’s stats reveal a legendary slugger who outperformed his JPPL peers by a wide margin, hitting home runs at nearly twice the frequency of the league average over his 1970–1992 career. His 15.64 AB/HR compared to the league’s 30.86 AB/HR translates to a 49.32% improvement, cementing his status as an exceptional power hitter of his time.
In our initial analysis, we examined the careers of Mickey Mantle, Alex Rodriguez, and Joe DiMaggio using our formulas. Following that, we also evaluated the careers of Josh Gibson, Sadaharu Oh, Buck Leonard, Tetsuharu Kawakami, Mule Suttles, Noboru Aota, Oscar Charleston, Katsuya Nomura, Turkey Stearnes, Makoto Kozuru, Willie Wells, Hiromitsu Ochiai, Wilson Redus, Kazuhiro Yamauchi, and Dewey Creacy.
Now, let's compare Kadota’s career statistics against these baseball legends to gain a clearer perspective on how he stacks up.
Raw Difference:
Kadota’s 15.22 is the smallest differential here, but this still represents a significant edge over his JPPL peers—needing 15.22 fewer at-bats per home run than the league average.
Improvement Factor:
Kadota nearly doubled his league’s home run rate, outpacing Tetsuharu Kawakami (1.84) and Dewey Creacy (1.80), he holds a solid position among players who redefined power hitting in their eras, with a number that’s remarkably close to Alex Rodriguez (2.07).
Percentage Difference:
A 49.32% improvement over the league average is a stellar mark, surpassing Kawakami (45.58%) and Creacy (44.54%), and nearing Rodriguez (51.69%).
Kadota’s rankings reflect not a weakness, but the sheer strength of this group. Even among this pantheon of baseball gods, Kadota’s stats sing a song of excellence—his efficiency and power cement him as a JPPL legend whose 567 home runs tell a story of relentless brilliance.
He seemed like a Killebrew or a McCovey.