- Nagisa Arakaki
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Nagisa Arakaki Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks — No. 18 Pitcher Born: May 9, 1980
Naha, Okinawa, JapanBats: Right Throws: Right Professional debut NPB: March 31, 2003 for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks NPB statistics
(through 2008 season)Win-Loss 53-44 ERA 3.71 Strikeouts 842 Teams Last update: 30 May 2011 Nagisa Arakaki (新垣 渚 Arakaki Nagisa, born May 9, 1980 in Naha, Okinawa) is a Japanese professional baseball player. He is currently with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Despite having one of the best fastballs and sliders of anyone in the league, Arakaki has battled control problems and injuries throughout his career. In 2007, Arakaki set the NPB record for most wild pitches in a season with 21, breaking Kazuhisa Ishii's record.
Arakaki was first seen at the 1998 Koshien summer tournament, and caught the eyes of many scouts with his fastball and sharp break on his slider. Despite his team not going far in the tournament, he was scouted by the Orix BlueWave and offered a contract. However, Arakaki turned it down stating that he did not intend to play for Orix. Incidentally, Katsutoshi Miwata who scouted Arakaki subsequently jumped to his death from an apartment building.
In both 2008 and 2009, Arakaki has been in and out of the lineup due to persistent shoulder problems. From the end of '07 to late '08, the righty did not win a start, a stretch that spanned from September 17, 2007, to August 28, 2008. In the 2008 campaign, Arakaki finished with a 4-6 record and a 4.18 ERA. The 2009 season was far less kind, as the embattled righty went 0-2 with a 7.91 ERA whilst battling shoulder injuries. He did not pitch at the Major League level in 2010, and he only pitched in 10 games at ni-gun, going 3-5 with a 4.50 ERA, 30 walks and 35 strikeouts in 48 innings.
Pitching Style
When he was drafted, Arakaki was considered one of the best pure power pitchers in the league, with a fastball that could consistently sit in 90-93 mph, and went as high as 155 km/h (96 mph) with an excellent slider that had late downward break. However, control has always been Arakaki's Achilles' heel, as he set the NPB record for wild pitches in 2007, a record that had been previously held by Kazuhisa Ishii, who was also a power pitcher with great breaking balls, but was also well known for his control problems.
Recently, Arakaki's career has been plagued by recurrent shoulder and elbow problems. He had elbow surgery performed on him in the 2008 offseason, and had shoulder surgery in December 2009.
External links
- Nippon Professional Baseball career statistics from Japanesebaseball.com
- Japan Baseball Daily
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks current roster First squad 1 Hiroshi Shibahara | 3 Nobuhiko Matsunaka | 5 Nobuhiro Matsuda | 6 Hitoshi Tamura | 9 Hiroki Kokubo | 11 Shinsuke Ogura | 14 Takahiro Mahara | 19 Masahiko Morifuku | 21 Tsuyoshi Wada | 23 Ryuma Kidokoro | 24 Seiichi Uchikawa | 25 Brian Falkenborg | 27 Toru Hosokawa | 28 Kenji Ohtonari | 30 Yuya Hasegawa | 32 Satoru Morimoto | 34 Hiroki Yamada | 36 Kenji Akashi | 40 Yoshiaki Fujioka | 42 Alex Cabrera | 46 Yuichi Honda | 48 Keisuke Kattoh | 49 Jose Ortiz | 47 Toshiya Sugiuchi | 50 Tadashi Settsu | 51 Takehito Kanazawa | 52 Munenori Kawasaki | 54 D. J. Houlton | 62 Katsuki Yamazaki | 70 Hidenori Tanoue |
Second squad 00 Teruaki Yoshikawa | 0 Tadaatsu Nakazawa | 2 Kenta Imamiya | 4 Masaumi Shimizu | 7 Soichiro Tateoka | 10 Keiji Nakahara | 12 Hiroaki Takaya | 13 Hideaki Takahashi | 17 Shota Ohba | 18 Nagisa Arakaki | 20 Shingo Tatsumi | 22 Ayatsugu Yamashita | 26 Hiroyuki Kawahara | 29 Reo Chikada | 31 Kenta Nakanishi | 33 Sho Arima | 37 Shuhei Fukuda | 38 Yasushi Kamiuchi | 39 Yuki Kume | 41 Sho Iwasaki | 43 Tomoaki Egawa | 44 Yuki Yanagida | 45 Lee Tu-Hsuan | 53 Keisuke Kaneko | 55 Teruaki Yoshikawa | 55 Yusuke Kosai | 56 Daichi Hoshino | 57 Anthony Lerew | 58 Takeshi Tsuji | 59 Takaki Minami | 60 Akira Nakamura | 61 Kim Mu-yon | 63 Ryuta Ohtahara | 66 Kazumi Saitoh | 64 Toru Takahashi | 65 Yuki Shimooki | 67 Masato Sakata | 68 Koji Toyofuku | 91 Yan Yao-Shun | 121 Keisuke Yasuda (Trainee) | 126 Daiki Nakahara (Trainee) | 127 Daichiro Itoh (Trainee) | 128 Kodai Senga (Trainee) | 129 Taisei Makihara (Trainee) | 130 Takuya Kai (Trainee) | 131 Akihiro Yanase (Trainee) | 132 Ryuta Ohtahara (Trainee) | 133 Shunya Suzuki (Trainee) | 134 Hiroaki Ohnishi (Trainee) | 135 Yuji Ohshiro (Trainee) | 136 Soichi Fujita (Trainee) | 140 Juan DeLeon (Trainee) |
First squad Coaching Manager: 81 Koji Akiyama | Head coach: 80 Daijiro Ohishi | Pitching coaches: 82 Ikuo Takayama, 86 Keisaburo Tanoue | Hitting coach: 83 Yoshiie Tachibana | Baserunning coaches: 84 Hiroshi Yugamidani, 87 Tatsuya Ide | Battery coach: 85 Tetsuya Matoyama | Conditioning coaches: 92 Shuichi Yamakawa, 96 Shingo Kan
Second squad Coaching Manager: 71 Yusuke Torigoe | Pitching coach: 73 Manabu Saitoh | Hitting coaches: 75 Yoshinori Yamamura | Baserunning coaches: 77 Takaya Hayashi, 87 Akihito Igarashi | Battery coach: 72 Masanori Taguchi | Conditioning coach: 95 Takashi Kawamura | Assistant conditioning coach: 93 Junji Hoshino | Assistant coach (Pitchers): 94 Shinji Kurano | Assistant coach (Fielders): 97 Katsuhiko Miyaji | Assistant coach (Battery): 99 Hiroyuki Mori |
Categories:- 1980 births
- Living people
- People from Naha
- Japanese baseball players
- Fukuoka Daiei Hawks players
- Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks players
- Japanese baseball pitcher stubs
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