Keiichi Yabu

Keiichi Yabu (藪 恵壹)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 201 lb.

• College Tokyo Keizai University
• High School Shingu High School
• Debut April 9, 2005
• Final Game September 27, 2008
• Born September 28, 1968 in Minami Muro-gun, Mie, Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Keiichi Yabu pitched in the Major League and Nippon Pro Baseball.

Yabu was drafted by the Hanshin Tigers in the first round of the 1993 NPB draft, and he was the Central League Rookie of the Year in 1994 when he went 9-9 with a 3.18 ERA. Yabu was selected into the 1994 NPB All-Star Game, and he pitched 3 innings with a homer allowed to Koji Akiyama in Game 1. The next year he improved his ERA to 2.98, but as the most-used pitcher on a last-place 46-84 team, he led the Central League in losses (7-13). He was also 6th in ERA, between Hiromi Makihara and Yasuyuki Yamauchi. Yabu slipped the next season. In 1996, Hanshin improved, but remained in the cellar, and he led the Central with 14 losses. He also gave up the most hits in the league a second straight season and also allowed the most runs.

The Mie native was 10-12 with a 3.59 ERA in 1997, and he was 3rd in losses (tied Balvino Gálvez and Ken Kadokura) and 9th in strikeouts (between Makihara and Hisashi Tokano). Yabu also attended the 1997 NPB All-Star Game, but he allowed 2 runs in 2 innings in Game 1 and got the loss. He then went 11-10 with a 3.51 ERA in 1998, and he tied Kenjiro Kawasaki for 5th in losses. Yabu had a 6-16 record with a 3.95 ERA in 1999, and he led the league in losses and hit-by-pitches. He went 6-10 with a 4.17 ERA in 2000, and he again on the leaderboard for losses as he was 4th. He suffered from a right shoulder injury in 2001, so he only pitched 17 games with a 4.09 ERA.

In 2002 Yabu bounced back, going 10-6 with a 3.14 ERA as Hanshin moved up to fourth. When Hanshin won the pennant the next year, Yabu was no longer the ace, dropping to fourth on the staff behind Kei Igawa, Hideki Irabu and Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi. He was 8-3 with a 3.96 ERA in 2003, and he had a 6-9 record with a 3.02 ERA in 2004. After going 84-106 for the Tigers and never finishing among the leaders in a "positive stat", Yabu signed with the Oakland A's for 2005 as a reliever. After one mediocre year with Oakland in which he went 4-0 with 1 save and a 4.50 ERA in 40 games, the A's concluded that they would not re-sign Yabu for 2006. Yabu went on to sign a minor league contract to play with the Colorado Rockies, where he was assigned to minor league camp after a lackluster spring training performance. Though, later Yabu went on to ask for his unconditional release from the Rockies and became a free agent.

Yabu played for the Tijuana Toros of the Mexican League in 2006; after the 2007 season, he signed with the San Francisco Giants and spent another year in the big leagues with them in 2008, going 3-6, 3.57 in 60 games and 68 innings. He was released during spring training in 2009, then signed again with the team, spending some time with the Fresno Grizzlies. He was released again on July 11. Over a year later, he made his return to the diamond, signing with the Rakuten Golden Eagles in late July 2010. Yabu's ERA was 4.91 in 11 relief outings, and he announced his retirement. He later became the pitching coach for the Tigers in 2012 and for their minors team in 2013.

Overall, Yabu was 84-106 with a 3.58 ERA, struck out 1,035 and pitched 1,655 2/3 innings in 12 seasons in NPB. As of 2024, he tied Masahiko Oishi, Tadashi Sugiura, Toshihiko Sei, Jun Misawa, Kazuyuki Yamamoto, Genji Kaku, Shinichi Kato and Shimoyanagi for 93th in losses in NPB history.