Ryoji Moriyama

Ryoji Moriyama (森山 良二)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 184 lb.

• School University of Kitakyushu
• High School Fukuoka University Ohori High School

• Born July 20, 1963 in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Ryoji Moriyama pitched in NPB for 9 years.

Moriyama was just 7-14 in college before the GM of the Seibu Lions Rikuo Nemoto advised him to drop out, and he sign with Ono Foods in the industrial leagues. He was sent by Seibu to the San Jose Bees in 1986, and he was 8-2 with a 3.62 ERA there. He used the name "Roymond Tamori" there, so the other teams would not notice him. The Lions took him in the first round of the 1986 NPB draft. Moriyama was 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA in four outings for the Lions in 1987. He tossed one shutout inning in the 1987 Japan Series, won by Seibu.

In 1988, he joined a star-studded rotation featuring Hisanobu Watanabe, Kimiyasu Kudoh, Osamu Higashio and Taigen Kaku and went 10-9 with a 3.46 ERA. Moriyama just missed joining Kaku, Higashio and Kudoh among the PL's top 10 in ERA. He was named Rookie of the Year. He then had his biggest game in game four of the 1988 Japan Series, going the distance in a two-hit shutout of the Chunichi Dragons to help Seibu take the title. Chunichi's offense that year included Kazuyoshi Tatsunami, Gary Rajsich and Hiromitsu Ochiai. That was it for Moriyama, who faded quickly from his bright beginning. He was rocked for 7 runs and 11 hits in 5 1/3 IP in 1989, was 0-1 with a 8.56 ERA in 1990, allowed two runs in 8 2/3 IP in 1991 and had a 0-1, 7.59 record in 1992. All four seasons, he allowed an average over .300.

Winless since his rookie year, Moriyama was traded with Hideo Nakamura to the Yokohama BayStars for Yoshiyuki Shimizu. He improved to 2-3, 5.20 in 1993 and 1-0, 3.95 in 1994 before finishing up with a 0-1, 4.35 campaign in 1995. Ryoji later was a coach for Yokohama from 1996 to 1997, and he was the minor league pitching coach for Seibu from 1998 to 2002 and from 2004 to 2005. He was their pitching coach for the big club in 2003 and from 2006 to 2007, then he managed the Fukuoka Red Warblers in the Kyushu-Shikoku Island League in 2008-2009. The Rakuten Golden Eagles named him their pitching coach from 2010 to 2019, and he jumped to the Softbank Hawks as the same position in 2020.

Overall, Moriyama had gone 14-15 with a 4.21 ERA in 86 games in Nippon Pro Baseball, with over 2/3 of the wins coming in his one memorable year.

Sources

• Wiki Japan
• Japan Baseball Daily
• Taiwan Baseball Wiki