Jim Heuser

James Adam Heuser

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 5", Weight 213 lb.

• School Illinois Valley Community College
• High School LaSalle-Peru High School

• Born March 30, 1984 in Spring Valley, IL USA

BR minors page

Biographical Information

Jim Heuser has pitched in the US, Japan and Canada.

Heuser was taken by the Oakland Athletics in the 27th round of the 2003 amateur draft, one round after Brian Horwitz; Jim Pransky was the scout. Jim was 0-1 with two saves and a 10.54 ERA for the AZL A's that summer. He improved to 3-2, 3.11 with the same club in 2004. The tall lefty had a 0-2, 4.30 record for the Kane County Cougars in 2005, walking 16 in 14 2/3 IP. Moving to the rotation, he went 5-4 with a 4.13 ERA for the 2006 Vancouver Canadians. He was 11-8 with a 4.12 ERA for the 2007 Cougars, with 147 K to 41 BB in 155 IP. He tied Trevor Cahill, Brandon Dickson, Jonah Nickerson, Zach Phillips and Omar Poveda for 6th in the Midwest League in wins, tied Alex Burnett for third in innings, tied Derrick Gordon for the balk lead (5) and was third in strikeouts (behind Duane Below and Phillips).

With the Stockton Ports in 2008, the Illinois native was 9-3 with a save and a 4.53 ERA, with 103 strikeouts in 95 1/3 IP but 61 walks. He was among the California League leaders in wins (tied for 10th), games pitched (48, tied for 9th with Paul Koss), walks (tied for 5th with Simon Ferrer), hit batsmen (11, tied for 4th) and balks (3, tied for 3rd). He pitched poorly for the 2009 Midland RockHounds (0-2, Sv, 6.03 in 32 G, 33 BB in 37 1/3 IP) and was let go by Oakland.

Signed by the Lancaster JetHawks, he was 1-1 with a 1.84 ERA in 14 more relief appearances for the rest of 2009. He was in the Atlantic League for all of 2010, with Lancaster (1-0, 4.05 in 21 G) and the York Revolution following a trade for Joselo Diaz (1-2, 6.18 in 34 G). He tied Tim Hamulack and Jorge Julio for 9th in the league in games pitched. He then took a year off baseball to go back to college.

Returning to the diamond, he signed with the Rakuten Golden Eagles for 2012 and provided good relief (1-2, Sv, 3.17, .99 WHIP) as a lefty specialist (58 G, 48 1/3 IP). He was 9th in the Pacific League in games pitched, between Atsushi Okamoto and Shinichiro Koyama. He was far worse his next year in Japan, going 2-2 with a 6.03 ERA and 1.63 WHIP in 22 games in 2013. He appeared in the first Japan Series game in Rakuten history. In game 1 of the 2013 Japan Series, he relieved Koyama with two outs in the 9th and retired Yoshiyuki Kamei in a 2-0 loss. He surprisingly got the start in game 4, allowing one run in 3 innings and leaving with a 4-1 lead, but the bullpen failed to maintain it and the Eagles lost.

His fastball peaks at 98 mph.