Hiroshi Suzuki (NPB)

Hiroshi Suzuki (鈴木 博志)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 209 lb.

• High School Iwata Higashi High School

• Born March 22, 1997 in Kakegawa, Shizuoka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Hiroshi Suzuki has pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Suzuki had surgery while in high school, derailing his pitching career for a period. He played with Yamaha in the industrial leagues and re-established himself as a prospect. He played for Japan when they won the 2017 Asian Championship, allowing 3 hits and one walk in three shutout innings while fanning five. With a fastball timed at 97.6 mph and supplemented by a slider, cutter, forkball and curveball, he was picked by the Chunichi Dragons in the first round of the 2017 NPB draft. He was not their initial top pick; they had chosen Shosei Nakamura but so had another team, which won the lottery for Nakamura's rights; Chunichi then fell back on Suzuki as a backup choice. Daiki Tajima was the only other industrial league player to go in the first round that year.

He was given number 46 as he wanted to honor Craig Kimbrel. He debuted in NPB in the third game of the 2018 season, relieving Keisuke Tanimoto in the bottom of the 7th with a 8-3 deficit against Hiroshima. He went 1-2-3, facing Tomohiro Abe, Yoshiyuki Ishihara and Ryoma Nishikawa; he fanned two of the three. After 18 appearances, he was 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA.

Sources

• YakyuDB
• NPB website
• Japanese Wikipedia
• Chinese Taipei Baseball Association