Atsushi Okamoto

Atsushi Okamoto (岡本 篤志)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 168 lb.
• School Meiji University
• High School Kaisei High School

• Born May 20, 1981 in Ibaraki, Osaka Japan

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Biographical Information

Pitcher Atsushi Okamoto played 12 season in Nippon Pro Baseball between 2004 and 2016, all for the Seibu Lions of the Pacific League. He was mainly a reliever and never won, lost or saved as many as 10 games in one season.

As a rookie in 2004, he was 1-1, 9.32 in 10 games, and in spite of his unimpressive record, he pitched in the 2004 Nippon Series in Seibu's win over the Chunichi Dragons. He followed that by going 0-1, 20.25 in 3 games in 2005. He allowed 14 runs in 5 1/3 innings that season and on April 1st surrendered the first home run in the history of the Rakuten Golden Eagles, who were an expansion team that year; Koichi Isobe connected off him in the bottom of the 1st in what was the first home game for Rakuten. He continued to struggle in his rare appearances at the top level the next two seasons, with ERAs of 7.71 and 6.00 in a total of 8 games. In 2008, it looked like he was starting to figure it out with Seibu's ni-gun squad in the minor league Eastern League, where he was 4-4, 2.86 in 16 games, but when called up to the top level, he was just 0-2, 5.51 in 14 games. He then missed all of the next season due to a stress fracture in his hip.

Okamoto was looking like a complete bust heading into the 2010 season, already 29 with just 1 top-level win to his name in five seasons. However, he began to turn things around that year, going 2-1, 3.09 in 33 games for Seibu. He would play at least part of every one of his remaining seasons in the minors, but would at least be a contributor in the Pacific League from then on. He had his best season in 2011, when he was 5-1 with 7 saves and an ERA of 2.11 in 49 games, but he would never reach such heights again. In 2012, he went 1-3, 4.11 in 59 games and in 2013 was 0-1. 4.50 in 20 games. He had a nice bounce-back year in 2014, when he finished at 1-1, 2.75 in 42 games and followed that by going 1-0, 3.05 in 23 games in 2015. He spent most of 2016 in the minors, but in his final turn at the top level, he put up a 6.75 ERA in 4 games, with no decisions. Overall, he was 11-11, 4.34 in 265 games over his 12 seasons, with 10 saves.