Katsumi Yamashita

Katsumi Yamashita (山下 勝充)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 191 lb.

• School Kindai University
• High School Kindai University High School

• Born May 19, 1977 in Yao, Osaka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Katsumi Yamashita has played in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Yamashita represented Japan in the 1998 Baseball World Cup, hitting .231/.375/.308 with two runs and one RBI in nine games, fielding .909 at third base. He led the team in games at third but Takaaki Sato and Kanichi Matoba each saw regular action there as well. The Kintetsu Buffaloes drafted him in the fourth round of the 1999 NPB draft. He only hit .150/.227/.215 in his rookie year, then spent the next three years in the NPB Farm Leagues. Although he won the batting title and home run king in the Western League in 2003, he still only got 98 at-bats combined with the big club over the next three seasons.

When the Rakuten Golden Eagles were founded in 2005, Yamashita was assigned to there. He only had 9 at-bats in the first year with the Rakuten. The Osaka native hit .341 with 13 homers in the Eastern League in 2006, and became the second player to lead in homers in both leagues in the ni-gun (following Ryo Kawano). He recorded a .278/.333/.367 batting line with the big club in 2006, and hit .256/.318/.333 in 2007. Yamashita announced his retirement after the 2007 season, and became a scout for the Golden Eagles since 2013.

Overall, Yamashita had hit .222/.284/.293 in 7 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan
• Defunct IBAF site