Hideto Asamura

Hideto Asamura (浅村 栄斗)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 171 lb.

• High School Osaka Toin High School

• Born November 12, 1990 in Osaka, Osaka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Hideto Asamura led the Pacific League in RBI and OPS his fourth season in the circuit.

Asamura hit 22 home runs in high school; he helped his team win the 2008 spring Koshien. The Seibu Lions drafted him in the third round of the 2008 NPB draft; the scout was Mitsutaka Goto. He made his debut with the big club on March 31, 2010, pinch-hitting for Tomoaki Sato and doubling off Sho Iwasaki to drive in a run. He hit his first homer August 10 off Hiroki Yamamura. He hit .262/.407/.476 in 55 plate appearances over 30 games as a backup utility infielder. In 2011, he batted .268/.327/.382 and was Seibu's most-used player at 1B (81 G) and LF (52 G). He got one of the 214 votes for the 2011 Pacific League Rookie of the Year Award.

In 2012, Asamura's batting line was .245/.307/.376 with 7 triples and 13 steals in 20 tries; he fielded .992 in 71 games at 1B and .965 in 56 games at 2B. He tied Nobuhiro Matsuda for second in the Pacific League in three-baggers, one behind Shogo Akiyama. At age 22, Asamura blossomed in 2013. He hit .317/.388/.554 with 38 doubles, 27 home runs, 85 runs and 110 RBI in 144 games while fielding .997 at 1B. He was among the Pacific League leaders in average (5th, between Ginji Akaminai and Seiichi Uchikawa), OBP (7th, between Tadahito Iguchi and Yoshio Itoi), slugging (1st by .004 over Sho Nakata), OPS (1st by 11 points over Nakata), total bases (301, 1st by 5 over Yuya Hasegawa), runs (5th, between Nobuhiro Matsuda and Andruw Jones), hits (172, 3rd behind Hasegawa and Uchikawa), doubles (1st by 5 over Itoi and Uchikawa), triples (5, tied for 5th), homers (4th behind Michel Abreu, Nakata and Casey McGehee), RBI (1st by 15 over Abreu) and walks (61, 9th, between Dae-ho Lee and Abreu). He easily won the Best Nine nod at 1B in the PL, with 188 of 228 votes (Akaminai had 27, Lee 9 and Iguchi 4). He was 5th in voting for the 2013 Pacific League Most Valuable Player Award behind Masahiro Tanaka, Hasegawa, McGehee and Takahiro Norimoto.