Kosaku Akimoto

Kosaku Akimoto (秋元 宏作)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 187 lb.

• School Nihon University
• High School Kokugakuin Kugayama High School

• Born January 29, 1968 in Bunkyo, Tokyo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kosaku Akimoto played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 11 years.

Akimoto was signed by the Seibu Lions in 1986, but he spent his first 4 seasons in the minors. He was also sent to the San Jose Bees in 1987, and he hit .112/.220/.138 in 103 games there; his glovework must have been good as he was their main catcher (four former major leaguers caught for them that year as well!). The Lions traded him with Yukiichi Komazaki and Michio Aoyama to the Taiyo Whales for Yasuhiko Kawano and Koichi Muraoka, and he hit .200/.242/.348 in 67 games in 1990. Akimoto had a .250/.307/.297 batting line in 1991, and he hit .213/.299/.295 in 1992. He played 71 games with a .235/.303/.353 batting line in 1993, and he only got 60 at-bats with a .233/.303/.300 line in 1994.

The Tokyo native played more than 100 games for the only time in his career in 1995, and his batting line was .200/.287/.312. He never got more than 50 at-bats in the rest of his career, and he announced his retirement in 2000. Akimoto was the battery coach for the Yokohama BayStars in 2001 and from 2006 to 2007, and he coached their minor league team from 2002 to 2005 and from 2008 to 2010. He moved to the Seibu Lions as their minor league battery coach from 2011 to 2016, and he coached their big club from 2017 to 2020. He returned to the minors in 2021.

Overall, Akimoto hit .215/.285/.309 with 230 hits and 16 homers in 11 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan