Atsushi Fujii

Atsushi Fujii (藤井 淳志)

• Bats Right or Both (has alternated), Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 170 lb.

• School University of Tsukuba
• High School Toyohashi Higashi Senior High School

• Born May 20, 1981 in Toyohashi, Aichi Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Atsushi Fujii has been an outfielder in Nippon Pro Baseball. After college, he played for NTT West in the industrial leagues. He played for Japan in the 2005 Asian Championship and 2005 Baseball World Cup; in the World Cup, he was 3 for 20 with a walk, triple, homer and 6 RBI as a part-time right fielder. Five of the RBI came in one win over Nicaragua.

Fujii was picked by the Chunichi Dragons in the third round of the 2005 NPB draft. He hit .146/.167/.195 for them in 44 plate appearances and 40 games in 2006, scoring 10 runs on 6 hits. He was usually a defensive sub in center field or pinch-runner. He made one appearance in the 2006 Japan Series. In 2007, he hit .203/.224/.297 and stole 7 bases in 9 tries. He scored 14 runs on 13 hits and had 71 plate appearances in 76 games in a similar role to 2006; in the field, he made no errors. He was 0 for 6 in the 2007 Japan Series but drew 3 walks, drove in one run and scored another as Chunichi won its first Japan Series title in over 50 years. He scored the go-ahead run in game 4, pinch-hitting and drawing a walk from Mitsuo Yoshikawa before scoring on a wild pitch later in the inning. In 2008, Fujii hit .171/.194/.371 in 40 games (39 plate appearances), scoring 10 runs on 6 hits. In his first 3 seasons, Fujii has had more runs than hits every year. In 2009, he hit .299/.337/.444 with 10 home runs and 49 RBI in 114 games. He was 8th in the Central League with 15 steals and tied for 8th with 26 doubles (tied with Shinya Miyamoto and Aaron Guiel).

Through 2009, his career batting line for Chunichi is .268/.302/.403 in 592 plate appearances over 270 games.

Sources

• Defunct IBAF site
• Japanesebaseball.com by Michael Westbay
• Japanese Wikipedia entry