Makoto Shiozaki

Makoto Shiozaki (塩崎 真)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 158 lb.

• School Toyo University
• High School Kumamoto Kogyo High School

• Born June 29, 1973 in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Makoto Shiozaki played over 1,000 games in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Shiozaki was a stater on his college's team as a freshman but dropped out after six months. While working part-time back home, a friend suggested he try the industrial leagues and he signed with Shin Nittetsu Hirohata. The Orix BlueWave took him in the third round of the 1996 NPB draft, one round after Yoshitomo Tani. He got into regular action as a rookie in 1997. His first game in NPB came as a pinch-runner for Hirofumi Ogawa and he promptly stole a base. His first hit came April 12 off Keisaburo Tanoue. For the year, he hit .243/.296/.298 in 215 plate appearances over 104 games and he stole 5 bases in 6 tries. He fielded .949 at SS as the backup to Ogawa. His 19 sacrifice hits were 10th in the Pacific League.

He hit his first home run May 3, 1998, against Hiroyuki Sekine. He saw reduced action from his rookie year as Koichi Oshima joined Ogawa and Shiozaki in seeing regular action at SS for Orix; Shiozaki hit .235/.272/.336 in 134 plate appearances and 60 games. He fielded .977 at short and played 13 games at 2B, backing up Oshima and So Taguchi. He batted .249/.346/.303 in 277 plate appearances over 104 games in 1999, splitting time with Ogawa at SS (.974 in 77 G) and Oshima primarily at 3B (1.000 in 42 G). His 20 sacrifice hits tied Shikato Yanagita for 9th in the PL.

Shiozaki became Orix's starting shortstop in 2000; he produced at a .262/.335/.344 clip, legged out 6 triples, fielded .976 and stole only 5 bases in 12 tries. He was among the PL leaders in triples (tied for third, 5 behind Kazuo Matsui and Toshihiro Noguchi), caught stealing (6th) and sacrifice hits (20, tied for 5th with Eiji Mizuguchi). He hit a nearly identical .262/.346/.342 in 2001, stole better (10 for 13) and fielded nearly the same (.977). He had 18 sacrifice hits to tie Tadaharu Sakai for 9th in the circuit. His numbers at the plate dipped in 2002 (.203/.228/.252) while he fielded .978. He tied for 6th with 21 sacrifice hits, even with Hiroshi Narahara and Hiroshi Shibahara.

Mitsutaka Goto became the starting shortstop for Orix in 2003; Shiozaki hit .225/.289/.318 in 155 plate appearances and 56 games and he fielded .956 at SS. He split time pretty evenly with Goto and Hidemitsu Saito in 2004 and also saw regular work at 2B and 3B. He had his best season offensively, at .341/.401/.490 with 13 steals in 16 tries over 337 plate appearances and 82 games. He fielded .983 at SS, .989 at 2B and .962 at 3B. He was 8th in the PL in steals and tied for 7th in sacrifice hits (15, even with Shogo Akada, Munenori Kawasaki and Tetsuya Matoyama). Had he qualified, his average would have been third behind Nobuhiko Matsunaka and Michihiro Ogasawara.

In 2005, #31 saw a drop in playing time as Orix merged with the Kintetsu Buffaloes to form the Orix Buffaloes. Kintetsu SS Masahiro Abe got the shortstop job for the new team while Shiozaki had to split third base with Goto and Mizuguchi. He had another good season in contact (.315/.362/.413 in 286 PA and 96 G) though his steals went from 13 to 0. Had he qualified, he would have tied Matsunaka for third in the PL in average behind Kazuhiro Wada and Julio Zuleta. He hit a career-high 9 home runs in 2006, batting .278/.347/.388. He split second base with Mizuguchi (fielding .994 in 67 games there), backed up Norihiro Nakamura at 3B (.974 in 43 G) and backed up Goto and Abe at SS (.981 in 38 G). He had 20 sacrifice hits, 8th in the PL, between Hichori Morimoto and Katsuki Yamazaki. That was Shiozaki's last year as a regular. He became a free agent that off-season but got no offers.

In 2007, Keiji Obiki became the shortstop, moving Goto and Abe to 2B and Shiozaki into a backup role to Greg LaRocca at 3B. Shiozaki was only 9 for 64 with a walk, double and home run. He hit .222/.314/.294 in 186 plate appearances over 92 games in 2008, seeing regular action at 3B with LaRocca struggling, though Hirotoshi Kitagawa was the most-used option there, with Shiozaki second. In 2009, he split third base with LaRocca, Kitagawa and Jose Fernandez while backing up Obiki at shortstop and also seeing a little time at the other two infield slots. He hit .234/.291/.351 in 106 plate appearances over 66 games. He was 9 for 48 with 5 walks and a home run in 2010 to end his playing career.

Shiozaki had hit .258/.322/.344 in 1,232 NPB games, with 358 runs and 261 RBI. He stole 47 bases in 73 tries and laid down 183 sacrifice hits. He had fielded .974 in 777 games at SS, .966 in 320 at 3B and .992 in 157 at 2B while playing error-free ball in 25 games at 1B. Through 2011, he was 36th in NPB annals in sacrifice hits, between Hitoshi Taneda and Shintaro Mizutani. After retiring as a player, he was a minor league coach for Orix.

Sources

• Japan Baseball Daily by Gary Garland
• Michael Eng's NPB database
• Japanese Wikipedia entry