Kyohei Iwasaki

Kyohei Iwasaki (岩﨑 恭平)

• Bats Left Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 161 lb.

• School Tokai University
• High School Tokai University Sagami High School

• Born April 4, 1986 in Atsugi, Kanagawa Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kyohei Iwasaki played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 7 years

Iwasaki represented Japan in the 2008 World University Baseball Championship, hitting .391/.391/.391 and handling 18 chances error-free. He was 4-for-4 in steal attempts. He was 6th in average, tied for 6th in hits and tied Jan Toman and Hiroki Uemoto for second in swipes, one behind Keijiro Matsumoto. Japan won Silver. In the 2008 Haarlem Baseball Week, he was at .250/.318/.250 with 5 runs in 6 games.

He was drafted by the Chunichi Dragons in the 3rd round the 2008 NPB draft, and he went 0-for-2 in 2009. He hit .269/.383/.337 with 31 steals in the NPB Farm Leagues in 2010, and he led the Western League in steals (9 ahead of #2 Kenichi Tagami) and runs (57, 10 ahead of Yusuke Kosai). He was 0-for-4 with the big club that season, and he recorded a .286/.352/.347 batting line in 57 plate appearances over 54 games as a utility man in 2013. He went 3-for-28 in 2014, and the Dragons traded him to the Orix Buffaloes for Taiki Mitsumata. Iwasaki was 1-for-8 in the rest of the season, and he batted .281/.343/.427 in 35 games in 2015. In August, he hit the 8,000th home run in Orix franchise history. However, he only played 16 more games for the top team before he announced his retirement in 2017.

Overall, Iwasaki hit .231/.300/.311 with 49 hits and 5 homers in 245 plate appearances over 7 seasons in NPB. He fielded .980 at his main spot, second base.

Sources

• World University Championship Final Report
• Wayback Archive, 2008 Haarlem Baseball Week
• Wiki Japan
• Japanese Baseball Card Blog