Eiji Mizuguchi

Eiji Mizuguchi (水口 栄二)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 171 lbs.

• School Waseda University
• High School Matsuyama Shogyo High School

• Born January 9, 1969 in Yawatahama, Ehime Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Eiji Mizuguchi played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 17 years.

Mizuguchi was drafted by the Kintetsu Buffaloes in the second round of the 1990 NPB draft, and he soon became the main pinch-runner and defensive substitution as a rookie. He played 173 games in those roles in his first three seasons. Mizuguchi won the competition with Takashi Yoshida for the shortstop spot in 1994, and he hit .272/.324/.398 in 107 games. He was still a reliable shortstop in the next season, hitting .268/.323/.304 with 2 homers.

When Daijiro Oishi struggled in 1996, Mizuguchi was moved to second and he had his career year. He was selected into the 1996 NPB All-Star Games, but Shinji Sasaoka retired him in his only at-bat in Game 1. He ended up hitting .281/.334/.385 with a career-high 8 homers, and ranked 2nd in sacrifice bunts in the Pacific League (6 behind Makoto Kaneko). He led the PL in sacrifice hits with 42 in 1997 with a .284/.370/.389 batting line, but slumped to .233/.305/.300 in 1998. Mizuguchi suffered a waist injury in 1999, so he only played 30 games.

After recovering from the injury, Mizuguchi was still a reliable infielder in 2000 as he hit .251/.333/.310 in 129 games. He led the league in bunts again in 2001 with 38, and he recorded a .290/.384/.337 line to help the Buffaloes win the PL pennant. In the 2001 Nippon Series, he was 0-for-2 and drew 2 walks in Game 1, then he shined in Game 2. Mizuguchi drew a walk first, then blasted a game-tying 3-run homer off Naoya Shimada. He was 0-for-9 in the rest of the series, and the Buffaloes were beaten by the Yakult Swallows in 5 games.

The Ehime native hit .255/.303/.341 in 2001 and .289/.344/.382 in 2003 as a utility man. He bounced back and recorded a .293/.374/.391 line with 6 homers in 2004 and led the PL in sacrifice bunts again. When the Buffaloes merged with the Orix BlueWave after this season, Mizuguchi was assigned to the new Orix Buffaloes. He had a .264/.350/.320 and .255/.305/.321 batting line as a backup infielder behind Keiichi Hirano in the next two seasons, then announced his retirement after only playing 52 games in 2006. He then became the batting coach for the Buffaloes from 2008 to 2012, and won his first Central League pennant as batting coach with the Hanshin Tigers in 2023; they also won the 2023 Japan Series.

Overall, Mizuguchi had hit .269/.338/.348 with 1,213 hits and 53 homers in 17 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan
• 1996 NPB All Star Game