Hitoshi Taneda

Hitoshi Taneda (種田 仁)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 150 lbs.

• High School Uenomiya High School

• Born July 18, 1971 in Yao, Osaka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Hitoshi Taneda played in the Nippon Pro Baseball for 18 years.

Taneda was drafted by the Chunichi Dragons in the sixth round of the 1989 NPB draft, but he only played 8 games with the big club in his rookie year. He improved in 1991, hitting .272/.346/.383 with 5 homers and took the starting second baseman spot from Toru Nimura. The young infielder extended his solid performance, recording a .246/.284/.334 batting line in 1992, then he blasted 10 homers with a .254/.301/.354 batting line in 1993. Taneda was also selected into the 1993 NPB All-Star Game, but he went 0-for-3.

However, the Osaka native struggled in 1994 due to injury, and his batting line fell to .158/.227/.292. He bounced back a little and hit .225/.286/.365 in 1995. Sent to the West Oahu CaneFires of the Hawaii Winter League, he hit .300 and slugged .463; he was 5th in the HWL in average, between teammates Marty Neff and Chris Truby. Despite the fine winter, his performance declined again to .178/.233/.215 in 1996. He spent the next three seasons mainly in the NPB Farm Leagues, only playing 94 games combined with the big club. He was even involved in a tax evasion scandal, and the league banned him for a month in 1998.

Taneda utilized a weird stance in 2000, as he would half-squat before hitting. That stance saved his career, as he hit .314/.373/.470 with 7 homers that season. He even broke the NPB record by reaching the base in 11 consecutive pinch-hitting at-bats. He also won the Central League Comeback Player of the Year Award. The Dragons then traded him with Hiroshi Yamada to the Yokohama BayStars in the middle of the 2001 season for Toshio Haru.

After changing teams, Taneda's performance wasn't influenced for the negative as he hit .278/.342/.397 with the BayStars. He had a .252/.297/.335 batting line in 2002, but he only played 93 games with a .287/.329/.372 batting lines in 2003. Taneda bounced back soon and hit .300/.358/.439 in 2004. He attended 2004 NPB All-Star Game 2, but went 0-for-2. The veteran had a career year in 2005, hitting .310/.384/.410, ranking 9th in batting (.034 behind Nori Aoki) and 12th in hits (38 behind Aoki). He was selected into the 2005 NPB All-Star Games, but went 0-for-2 again. The 2005 season was his last productive season as he slumped to .217/.304/.270 in 2006, and he only played 60 games with a .258/.329/.424 batting line in 2007. The BayStars released him after the 2007 season, and the Seibu Lions picked him up. However, Taneda spent the whole 2008 season in ni-gun, then announced his retirement after that season. He was the batting coach for the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization in 2010, and worked as fielding coach for the Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2011.

Overall, Taneda had hit .264/.323/.370 with 71 homers and 1,102 hits in 18 seasons in NPB.

Related Sites

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan