Kazuya Fujita

Kazuya Fujita (藤田 一也)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 165 lb.
• School Kinki University
• High School Naruto Daiichi High School

• Born July 3, 1982 in Naruto, Tokushima Japan

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Biographical Information

Kazuya Fujita has been an infielder in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Fujita twice led the Kansai Big Six University League in average and made the Best Nine four times in college. The Yokohama BayStars took him in the 4th round of the 2004 draft. He made his NPB debut the next year as a pinch-runner for Hitoshi Taneda. In his first at-bat, he was retired by Hiroki Kuroda. His first hit was a single off Tom Davey on September 1. He finished the season 1 for 9 with four whiffs. He hit .203/.225/.218 in 147 plate appearances over 65 games in 2006, backing up Seiichi Uchikawa and Taneda at 2B. He was 19 for 76 with 5 doubles and four walks in 2007, primarily subbing for Takuro Ishii at SS. He hit .241/.265/.315 in 46 games in 2008, backing up Toshihisa Nishi at 2B and Ishii and Takehiro Ishikawa at SS. He hit his first NPB homer, a solo shot off Kenichi Nakata August 19.

Fujita took over the Yokohama second base job from the fading Nishi in 2009; he produced at a .269/.283/.353 clip with only 7 walks and 20 RBI in 120 games, while fielding .995. When the BayStars picked up Jose Castillo, Fujita was back on the bench in 2010, subbing for Castillo at 2B and Ishikawa at SS. He hit .308/.335/.363 in 220 plate appearances over 106 games. He backed up Naoto Watanabe at 2B for the 2011 BayStars and again showed good contact if not much else offensively (.303/.361/.372 in 208 PA, 96 G).

The Tokushima native began 2012 poorly for Yokohama (.243/.298/.288 in 46 G) and was dealt to the Rakuten Golden Eagles for Kensuke Uchimura. He batted .308/.322/.378 in 63 games for Rakuten. He was the starter at 2B for Rakuten in 2013, hitting .275/.320/.326 and fielding .991 there. He was 4th in the Pacific League with 33 sacrifice hits and tied for third with 12 hit-by-pitch, behind only Aarom Baldiris and Andruw Jones. He set up the first Japan Series run in Rakuten history. In game 2 of the 2013 Japan Series, he bunted Takero Okajima over against Tomoyuki Sugano; Ginji Akaminai singled in Okajima. In the 7th inning, he had the second Rakuten Japan Series RBI, getting an infield single to score Ryo Hijirisawa; replays showed he was clearly out at first, but umpire Kenjiro Mori did not reverse his call.

Sources

• Japanball.com
• Japan Baseball Daily by Gary Garland
• Japanese Wikipedia