Koji Hirashita

Koji Hirashita (平下 晃司)

• Bats Left Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 178 lb.
• High School Nichinan Gakuen High School
• Born February 1, 1978 in Nichinan, Miyazaki Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Koji Hirashita played in Nippon Pro Baseball from 2000 to 2007, usually in a reserve role.

Hirashita hit 30 home runs during his high school career then was a fifth-round pick of the Kintetsu Buffaloes in the 1995 NPB draft. He made it to the big time in 2000, getting his first hit off Yoshinori Tateyama and his first home run off Fumiya Nishiguchi. He hit .255/.306/.340 as the team's #4 outfielder behind Tuffy Rhodes, Naoyuki Omura and Tetsuya Matoyama. He tied for tenth in the Pacific League with four triples and tied for tenth with 15 sacrifice hits. In 2000, he was traded to the Hanshin Tigers with Tetsuji Mende and Hiroki Sakai for Hirotoshi Kitagawa, Toshiro Yufune and Kazuharu Yamazaki.

He saw little action with Hanshin in 2001 (4 for 23, 2 BB) then hit .253/.281/.345 in a career-high 89 games in 2002; he was the second-most-used backup outfielder after Derrick White. His time dropped again in 2003, when he was 6 for 19 with 3 homers and 3 walks in impressive limited work. He was 1 for 4 with a walk to open 2004 then was traded to the Chiba Lotte Marines for Takashi Tachikawa. He hit .227/.286/.351 in 52 games the rest of the way. He was 1 for 4 with a walk in 2005 and did not play in the 2005 Japan Series.

In 2006, he hit .266/.333/.342 in 90 plate appearances over 47 games. He was 0 for 2 to open 2007 then was dealt to the Orix Buffaloes for pitcher Masato Yoshii. He was 1 for 13 for Orix in 2007. The team merged with Kintetsu to become the Orix Buffaloes and he spent all of 2008 in the minors. He then moved to the Kansai Independent League as a player-coach. He managed in the Japan Women's Baseball League for a period.

He never played in more than 89 games or had more than 51 hits in a season; overall, he batted.244/.296/.347 with 12 home runs, 64 RBI and 21 stolen bases in 319 games over eight seasons.