Hiroki Yamada (baseball)

Hiroki Yamada (山田 大樹, born July 30, 1988) is a Japanese left-handed pitcher who is currently a free agent. He has played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

Hiroki Yamada
Yamada with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
Free Agent
Pitcher
Born: (1988-07-30) July 30, 1988
Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Bats: Left
Throws: Left
debut
June 10, 2010, for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
NPB statistics
(through 2020 season)
Win–loss record29–33
Earned run average3.73
Strikeouts276
Teams

Career

Yamada played his first season in the NPB with the Hawks going 4-4 and a 4.60 ERA, striking out 44 over 59 innings.[1] At the end of the season he joined the Brisbane Bandits inaugural roster and was reported to try to learn a slow curve during the season.[2] Throughout the 2010-11 Australian Baseball League season, Yamada had been impressive for the Bandits with a 2-1, 3.00 ERA record, including 30 strikeouts over as many innings until in his last game against the Melbourne Aces where he let in 8 earned runs over 3 innings at the very batter friendly Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, blowing out his ERA to 4.91.[3]

Yamada pitched his first shutout for the Hawks on May 20, 2011 over the Hanshin Tigers, letting in only 4 hits over 9 innings of work. He finished the 2011 regular season 7-7 with a 2.85 ERA. In the 2011 postseason, Hiroki picked up the win in Game 5 of the Japan Series, throwing 6 shutout innings. The Hawks would go on to win the Series against the Chunichi Dragons 4-3.

On November 11, 2017, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks traded Yamada to the Tokyo Yakult Swallows for free of charge.[4]

On December 2, 2020, he become free agent.[5]

References
  1. "Hiroki Yamada (Fukuoka Softbank Hawks)". NPB.
  2. Softbank Hawks Hiroki Yamada To Add a Slow Curve - Yakyubaka
  3. "Hiroki Yamada". Brisbane Bandits. Archived from the original on 2012-03-29. Retrieved 2010-12-14.
  4. "Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks 2017/11/11 Press release (Japanese) トレードについて". Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Official web site. November 11, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
  5. "2020年度 自由契約選手". NPB.jp 日本野球機構 (in Japanese). Retrieved January 8, 2021.
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