Kazunari Tsuruoka

Kazunari Tsuruoka (鶴岡 一成)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 185 lb.

• High School Shinko Gakuen High School

• Born May 30, 1977 in Takasago, Hyogo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kazunari Tsuruoka has played in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Tsuruoka was drafted by the Yokohama BayStars in the fifth round of the 1995 NPB draft. He spent the first eight years mainly on the NPB Farm Leagues, and only had 24 appearances combined with the top team in that period. He also represented Japan in the 2002 Asian Games, splitting catching with Masanori Yasuda. He struck out against Chien-Ming Wang his first time up but finished 4-for-10, including a homer off Roy Baclay. In the Bronze Medal Game, he drove in a pair in a win over China. When Takeshi Nakamura was injured in 2004, Tsuruoka finally got some chances with the big club. He hit .400/.421/.582 in 55 at-bats, and became the second player to hit above .400 in more than 50 at-bats in a season (the first one was Takao Miyagawa). He hit .286/.333/.464 in 24 games in 2005, then recorded a .244/.312/.394 batting line in 2006. He only played 36 games with a .217/.349/.261 batting line in 2007, then the BayStars traded him to the Yomiuri Giants for Hiroki Sanada after he batted .288/.339/.327 on June 10, 2008.

Tsuruoka only hit .167/.259/.333 in the rest of the 2008 season. Since their superstar catcher Shinnosuke Abe injured his right shoulder, Tsuruoka played all 7 games in the 2008 Nippon Series, but he went 1-for-14. He hit .261/.303/.437 in 2009 as Abe's backup, and slumped to .229/.325/.257 in 32 games in 2010. The Hyogo native only recorded a .218/.283/.236 batting line in 2011, then he became a free agent after the 2011 season. The BayStars signed him back and named Tsuruoka as their starting catcher. The 35-year-old veteran played more than 100 games for the first time in his career in 2012 (his age 35 season), and recorded a .189/.258/.254 batting line. He improved to .250/.312/.346 with a career-high 108 games played in 2013. Tsuruoka broke the NPB record when he faced 19 pitches in an at-bat versus Tetsuya Yamaguchi on August 25. The BayStars signed Yasutomo Kubo after the 2013 season, and the Hanshin Tigers selected Tsuruoka as the compensation.

Tsuruoka was named as Ryutaro Umeno's backup after transferring, and he hit .221/.239/.266 in 70 games played. He was still a stable catcher in 2015, and he played 70 games with a .229/.296/.301 batting line. Tsuruoka only played 10 games in 2016, then he announced his retirement after that season. He was the ni-gun battery coach for the Chiba Lotte Marines from 2017 to 2018, then served as battery coach for the BayStars in 2019. He was assigned to the minor team for the BayStars and worked as battery coach since 2020.

Overall, Tsuruoka had hit .235/.296/.328 in 16 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• 2002 Asian Games, Wayback Archive
• 2008 Nippon Series
• Wiki Japan