Hidenori Tanoue

Hidenori Tanoue (田上 秀則) (Bora)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 178 lb.

• School Kyushu Kyoritsu University
• High School Osaka Sangyo University High School

• Born March 20, 1980 in Osaka, Osaka Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Hidenori Tanoue has caught in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Tanoue set a league record with 9 homers in a season in college. He was a third-round pick of the Chunichi Dragons in the 2001 NPB draft. He debuted in October 2002, going 1 for 6; his hit was a single off Tetsuro Kawajiri on October 14. He led the minor Western League in homers in 2003. He was 1 for 9 with Chunichi that year and 0 for 3 in 2005. After spending all of 2005 in the minors, he was let go.

The Softbank Hawks signed Tanoue; the club was in need of a catcher with Kenji Johjima having left for the major leagues. Tanoue backed up Katsuki Yamazaki and hit .283/.298/.384, the better of the duo at the plate in 2006. On June 1, he hit his first career homer, off Daisuke Miura in an interleague game. Three days later, on June 4, his pinch-hit homer won it for another Tanoue, Keisaburo Tanoue.

Tanoue hit .264/.298/.415 with 9 homers in 258 AB in 2007, replacing Yamazaki as the main backstop for the Hawks. In 2008, he batted .264/.287/.417 in 52 contests for Softbank.

Hidenori became a starter in 2009 and produced at a .251/.299/.458 clip with 26 homers, 80 RBI and 122 strikeouts. The free-swinging slugger was among the Pacific League leaders in home runs (4th behind Takeya Nakamura, Takeshi Yamasaki and Terrmel Sledge), sacrifice hits (18, tied for 7th), RBI (tied for 9th with Nobuhiko Matsunaka) and strikeouts (2nd to Nakamura). He was named to the Best Nine as the top catcher in the PL.

Sources

• Japan Baseball Daily
• Japanball.com