Katsuaki Furuki

Katsuaki Furuki (古木 克明)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 187 lb.

• High School Toyota Otani High School

• Born November 10, 1980 in Matsusaka, Mie Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Katsuaki Furuki has played in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Furuki was drafted by the Yokohama BayStars in the first round of the 1998 NPB draft. He spent the first three years in the NPB Farm leagues, and only played 41 games combined with the big club. He also represented Japan in the 2002 Intercontinental Cup. He hit .259/.286/.778 with 4 homers and 8 RBI in 7 games, playing left field primarily. He tied for 9th in the Cup in RBI and was second in dingers, one behind Yobal Dueñas.

He broke out in 2003, he hit .208/.285/.430 with a career-high 22 homers. He was 13th in homers, but collected a league-leading 20 errors and ranked second in strikeouts (1 behind Ty Woods). Furuki was often used as pinch-hitter due to his terrible defense, and he hit .290/.365/.484 with 11 homers in 94 games in 2004. Masaaki Koike replaced him in 2005 with his batter defense, so Furuki only played 65 games with a .248/.319/.371 batting line. When Hitoshi Tamura injured in 2006, Furuki gain the chance again. He hit .252/.296/.419 with 10 homers, but his defense was still poor as he led the league with 8 errors as an outfielder.

He suffered a right injury in 2007, so he only played 72 games with a .247/.275/.405 batting line. The BayStars traded him to the Orix Buffaloes for Hiroaki Onishi after that season. Furuki spent the next two seasons mainly in the ni-gun, only played 30 games combined. He announced his retirement after the 2009 season.

Overall, Furuki had hit .247/.305/.437 with 58 homers in 10 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan
• Defunct IBAF site