Toshiya Sugiuchi

Toshiya Sugiuchi (杉内 俊哉 , born October 10, 1980 in Kasuga, Fukuoka) is a left-handed pitcher for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He competed in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, and was also named to the 2008 Japanese Olympic team.

Even though one of the top lefties in Japan, Sugiuchi has not garnered as much attention as he would normally get because he is usually behind both Kazumi Saitoh and Tsuyoshi Wada in the starting rotation, but when all three are healthy, they are the best threesome in Japan. He won the Sawamura Award in 2005 as the best pitcher in Japan, going a career-best 18-5 with a 2.11 ERA over 196 and 2/3 innings (since surpassed in 2007 by one inning). He also set another career best for himself in strikeouts, with 211 (tops in the league), and he walked only 43 batters, which equated to a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 9.98.

A workhorse pitcher that usually goes for the strikeout, Sugiuchi works exclusively from the stretch position, and while he has a slow move to the plate, he hides the ball very effectively. Sugiuchi throws a fastball, slider, forkball, changeup, and curveball, all with great command. Sugiuchi uses the slider and curve as his out pitches.