Chihiro Kaneko
From BR Bullpen
Chihiro Kaneko (Neko) (金子 千尋)
- Bats Left, Throws Right
- Height 5' 11", Weight 170 lb.
- High School Nagano Shogyo High School
- Born November 8, 1983 in Sanjo, Niigata Japan
Chihiro Kaneko made his first All-Star team in 2009.
Kaneko played for Toyota Motors in Japan's industrial leagues after high school. He was a first-round pick of the Orix BlueWave in 2004. After a year in the minors, he came up in 2006 and was 1-1 with a 3.54 ERA but walked 18 in 28 innings.
The right-hander pitched 36 games, mostly in relief, in 2007 and was 6-2 with a save and a 2.79 ERA; he cut his walks to 20 in 84 innings. He pitched his first career shutout on August 26. He had the best record on the Orix club. In 2008, Kaneko posted a 10-9, 3.98 record with just 34 walks in 165 innings. He started and won on Opening Day that year. He tied Naoyuki Shimizu for 6th in the Pacific League in losses, was second wuth 185 hits allowed (behind Shunsuke Watanabe), was second with 19 home runs (behind only Brian Sweeney) and was 8th with 126 strikeouts.
Kaneko improved to 11-8 with four saves and a 2.57 ERA in 2009. He had a WHIP of 1.07 with just 34 walks to 165 strikeouts in 171 2/3 IP. He made his first PL All-Star squad. He was 5th in ERA behind Yu Darvish, Hideaki Wakui, Masahiro Tanaka and Toshiya Sugiuchi. He was 6th in the PL in innings, tied D.J. Houlton and Yoshihisa Naruse for 8th in wins, tied for 6th in losses, tied Darvish and 3 others for third in shutouts (2), tied for 5th with 5 complete games and was 5th in strikeouts (behind Sugiuchi, wakui, Tanaka and Darvish). He became the first Orix hurler in 12 years to have consecutive seasons of double-digit wins, since Willie Fraser and Nobuyuki Hoshino.
On Opening Day, 2010, Kaneko threw a four-hit shutout to outduel Hisashi Iwakuma of the Rakuten Golden Eagles, 1-0.
Chihiro throws a cutter, curveball, slider, shuuto, changeup, forkball and fastball (timed as high as 95 mph).
Source: Japan Baseball Daily
