A pair of first basemen, the Seibu Lions' Ernesto Mejia and the Chunichi Dragons' Dayan Viciedo, grabbed the first monthly honors of the Nippon Professional Baseball season on Tuesday.
On the pitchers' side, Pacific League honors went to the Chiba Lotte Marines' Hideaki Wakui and the Central League award was issued to the Yomiuri Giants' Tomoyuki Sugano.
NPB Pitcher of the Month awards generally go to the starting pitcher with the most wins, while the Player of the Month awards ignore defensive contributions.