Katsuhiko Saka

Katsuhiko Saka (坂 克彦)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 185 lbs.

• High School Joso Gakuin High School

• Born September 6, 1985 in Kasumigaura, Ibaraki Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Katsuhiko Saka played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 10 years.

Saka represented Japan in the 2003 Asia Junior Championship. The Kintetsu Buffaloes selected him in the 4th round of the 2003 NPB draft, but he didn't reach the big club until he was assigned to the Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2005 after Kintetsu was merged with the Orix BlueWave and Rakuten joined the league to fill the gap. He stayed in the minors for another 2 seasons, and he was traded to the Hanshin Tigers for Rui Makino. Saka still didn't get many chances as he went 0-for-5 in 2006, and he hit .189/.184/.297 in 2007. He had a .292/.346/.417 batting line in the minors in 2008, and he ranked 2nd in batting in the Western League (.040 behind Ryota Arai); he was 0-for-9 with the big club though.

The Ibaraki native was 0-for-4 in 2009, and he batted .269/.310/.481 in 28 games in 2010. He only got 40 at-bats combined in the next two seasons, and he recorded a .229/.294/.293 batting line in 111 games in 2013. He was still not a starter, backing up Tsuyoshi Nishioka at 2B and Ryota Arai at 3B. That was the only season that Saka had more than 100 at-bats in a season. He had a .206/.307/.254 batting line in 2014, then he went 7-for-40 in 87 games in 2015. The Tigers released him after that season, and he played for the Osaka 06 Bulls from 2017 to 2018. He was the manager of the Ibaraki Astro Planets from 2019 to 2020.

Overall, Saka hit .211/.270/.288 with 96 hits and 5 homers in 10 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan