Kazuyuki Atsuzawa

Kazuyuki Atsuzawa (厚澤 和幸)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 0", Weight 165 lb.

• School Kokushikan University
• High School Omiya Kogyo High School

• Born August 11, 1972 in Urawa, Saitama Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kazuyuki Atsuzawa has played and coached in Nippon Pro Baseball.

He won a Tokyo Metropolitan University League MVP as a senior. The Nippon Ham Fighters took him in the second round of the 1994 NPB draft, one round after Satoru Kanemura. He was 0-1 with a 6.35 ERA in seven games in 1995, walking 8 in 11 1/3 IP (his first NPB strikeout was Kenichi Yamazaki), then was not with the top team the next year. He returned briefly in 1997, pitching 1 2/3 shutout innings over three games. He suffered a concussion late in the season when he was hit in the head by a Koichi Hori liner.

The lefty had a 2.25 ERA in five outings in 1998, allowing one unearned run in 3 1/3 IP in 1999, gave up three runs in six innings in 2000 and peaked in activity in 2001 (0-1, 6.38 in 15 G; 24 IP). Control remained an issue as he walked 17, though he did fan 26. He was 0-2 with 9 runs (6 earned) in 6 innings in 2003 before retiring. He did have success in the minors, twice leading the league in wins and throwing a no-hitter, but was 0-4 with a 5.37 ERA in 42 games in the PL, walking 41 in 60 1/3 IP.

Atsuzawa then became a minor league pitching coach for the Fighters, moving up to the top team from 2007-2010. He then switched to scouting but returned to a pitching coach role in 2014 then bench coach from 2016-2020. He was pitching coach in 2021 then ended his decades-long ties with the Fighters, joining the Orix Buffaloes coaching staff. He was named to Japan's coaching staff for the 2023 World Baseball Classic.