Hiroshi Yoshida (02)

Hiroshi Yoshida (吉田 浩)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 10", Weight 176 lb.

• High School Takaoka Daiichi High School

• Born November 5, 1971 in Fukuoka, Toyama Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Hiroshi Yoshida played for several seasons in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Yoshida was a sixth-round pick of the Hanshin Tigers in the 1989 NPB draft. After several years on the farm, he debuted with the big club in 1995. His first hit was a homer off Daisuke Miura. He finished the year 3 for 15 with a double, the home run and a walk. As a backup outfielder in 1996, he was 7 for 27 with 3 walks, 3 runs and two RBI. He and Koichi Sekikawa were the most-used backup outfielders for the Tigers (the starters were Shinjiro Hiyama, Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Katsuhiro Hiratsuka) in 1997 and he also pinch-hit a lot. In 106 plate appearances over 82 games, he hit .265/.308/.337. It was his busiest year in NPB.

In 1998, Yoshida was 3 for 28 with a homer, four runs, a RBI, five walks and ten whiffs. He batted .241/.268/.278 in 56 plate appearances in 1999 and did not appear for the big club in 2000. In 2001, he was used primarily as a backup 1B and hit .345/.457/.448 in his 35 plate appearances. After an 0-for-7 performance in 2002, he was let go. His career batting line was .240/.307/.314 in 286 plate appearances over 221 NPB games.

Yoshida then spent the next four years with Sumitomo Metals in the industrial leagues, the last year as a coach. He also played for the Japanese national team in the 2003 Baseball World Cup, hitting .391/.548/.609 with nine runs in ten games as their main right fielder. In the Bronze Medal game, he hit third for Japan and went 2 for 4 with a walk, double and error in a 7-3 win over Taiwan. He failed to make the tournament All-Star team as Frederich Cepeda, Takashi Yoshiura and Rubén Rivera were chosen instead; Yoshida had a better OPS than Rivera.

Sources

• Old IBAF site
• Japan Baseball Daily
• Wiki Japan