Kentaro Takasaki

Kentaro Takasaki (高崎 健太郎)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 181 lb.

• High School Chinzei High School

• Born June 24, 1985 in Kamimashiki-gun, Kumamoto Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kentaro Takasaki pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Out of high school, Takasaki signed with Nissan in the industrial leagues. He joined the Japanese national team in 2005, appearing in the 2005 Asian Championship and 2005 Baseball World Cup. In the World Cup, he was arguably Japan's best hurler, with a 0.61 ERA in 5 games. He got the win over Australia and fanned 19 in 14 2/3 IP. He just missed the top 5 in the event in ERA. He helped Japan win Silver in the 2006 Asian Games. He was 1-0 with a 0.82 ERA in the 2006 Intercontinental Cup, beating Riccardo De Santis and Italy. only Shota Oba (0.73) had a better ERA for Japan.

Takasaki was selected by the Yokohama BayStars in the first round of the 2006 NPB draft, and he debuted with them in 2007, going 2-1 with a 5.40 ERA in nine outings. He spent most of the year in ni-gun, leading the minor Eastern League with 10 wins. His first strikeout in ichi-gun came against Michihiro Ogasawara. In 2008, Kentaro faded to 0-2, 7.94, allowing a .385 average (30 hits in 17 innings) in 11 games for Yokohama. Takasaki was turned into a reliever in 2009, and he had a 4.01 ERA in 56 appearances with 5 holds. He tied Katsuhiro Nagakawa and Ryota Igarashi for 10th in games in the Central League.

The Kumamoto native struggled in 2010, and he only pitched 7 games with a 7.80 ERA. Takasaki returned to the rotation in 2012, and he was 5-15 with a 3.45 ERA. He led the league with 15 losses and 68 earned runs allowed, and he tied Masanori Ishikawa for 9th in strikeouts (97). He then went 7-10 with a 3.20 ERA in 2012, and he was 9th in losses (tied with Atsushi Nomi, Kenichi Nakata and Hirokazu Sawamura). Takasaki slumped to 2-5 with a 5.83 ERA in 2013, and he was 2-3 with a 4.17 ERA in 2014. He had a 2-3 record with a 4.98 ERA in 7 starts in 2015, and he only pitched one more inning before he announced his retirement in 2017.

Overall, Takasaki went 25-40 with a 4.22 ERA, struck out 435 and pitched 616 1/3 innings in 10 seasons in NPB. He threw a fastball (around 93 mph peak), slider, curveball and forkball.

Sources

• Japanesebaseball.com by Michael Westbay
• Defunct IBAF site
• Japanese Wikipedia entry