Kazuhiro Hatakeyama

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (畠山 和洋)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 212 lb.
• High School Senshu University Kitakami High School

• Born September 13, 1982 in Hanamaki, Iwate Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 16 years.

Hatakeyama hit 62 home runs in high school. The Yakult Swallows took him in the 5th round in 2000 NPB draft. He won the Eastern League (NPB) home run and RBI titles in 2002. He also played for the Japanese national team in the 2002 Asian Games, when Japan won the Bronze. He made his debut with the big club in August 2004. His first hit was October 7, 2004, against Hisanori Takahashi, his only hit in 8 at-bats in 2004. He was 2 for 11 with 2 walks, a homer and 5 strikeouts in 2005; his home run came August 19 off Taiyo Fujita.

In 2006, he was 0 for 6 with a walk. He hit .227/.326/.293 in 88 plate appearances over 37 games in 2007. He became Yakult's starting first baseman in 2008 and hit .279/.364/.406. He was 7th in the Central League with 53 walks, between Shuichi Murata and Norihiro Nakamura. He lost his starting job in 2009 as Yakult brought in Jamie D'Antona. Kazuhiro fell to .236/.329/.357 in a backup role, subbing for D'Antona at 1B and Shinya Miyamoto at 3B. In 2010, he was used mostly in left field (48 games) while again backing up D'Antona and Miyamoto; he hit .300/.380/.551 with 14 HR in 280 plate appearances.

His 2010 performance won him back the Swallows' starting role at 1B in 2011. He produced at a .269/.373/.462 rate with 23 home runs and 85 RBI. He was among the league leaders in runs (66, tied for 5th with Matt Murton), doubles (24, tied for 6th with Murton and Kazuhiro Wada), home runs (23, tied for second with Alex Ramirez behind Wladimir Balentien), RBI (85, 3rd behind Takahiro Arai and Kenta Kurihara), total bases (230, 4th between Arai and Hayato Sakamoto), walks (78, tied for first with Takashi Toritani), strikeouts (94, 7th), OBP (3rd behind Toritani and Hisayoshi Chono), slugging (3rd behind Balentien and Chono) and OPS (2nd to Chono). He lost Best Nine honors at 1B to Kurihara. He was also voted into the 2011 NPB All-Star Game, and he crushed a 3-run homer against Masaru Takeda in Game 1 to win the MVP.

Hatakeyama extended his solid performance in 2012, and he was selected into the 2012 NPB All-Star Game. As the CL's starting first baseman and cleanup hitter in Game 3 in his hometown Iwate, he blasted a solo shot against Takahiro Shiomi in the 4th inning and won the fighting spirit award as the top player on the losing side. He ended up hitting .266/.323/.402 with 13 homers in 2012, and he won his first NPB Gold Glove. Hatakeyama blasted the first sayonara grand slam in Yakult's history on May 17, 2013 against Takahiro Matsunaga, but he slumped to .219/.279/.369 that year. He bounced back soon in 2014, and he hit .310/.365/.481 with 17 homers. He was 8th in batting (between Takashi Toritani and Yoshihiro Maru) and 7th in RBI (79, between Matt Murton and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo).

The Iwate native had his career year in 2015, and he blasted a career-high 26 homers with a .268/.344/.471 batting line. He led the league with 105 RBI, and he was 2nd in homers (12 behind his teammate Tetsuto Yamada). Hatakeyama hit .222/.300/.556 with 2 homers in the 2015 Nippon Series (against Shota Takeda in Game 1 and Ryota Igarashi in Game 3), but the Swallows lost to the Softbank Hawks in 5 games. However, the 2015 season was his last productive season. Hatakeyama only played 45 games in 2016 with a .245/.353/.325 batting line due to back injury, and he missed most of the 2017 season due to a left shoulder injury. He hit .248/.374/.411 in 75 games in 2018, and he announced his retirement in 2019. He later coached the minors team of the Swallows from 2020 to 2024.

Overall, Hatakeyama hit .266/.346/.428 with 937 hits and 128 homers in 16 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Japan Baseball Daily
• Japanese Wikipedia entry