Manabu Tanabe

Manabu Tanabe (田辺 学)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 11", Weight 190 lb.

• High School Susono High School

• Born March 8, 1965 in Sunto-gun, Shizuoka Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Manabu Tanabe pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Tanabe represented Japan in the 1985 Asian Championship. The Taiyo Whales drafted him in the sixth round of the 1987 NPB draft. Tanabe pitched 25 games with a 3.69 ERA as a rookie. He missed nearly the entire 1990 season due to injury. In 1991, Tanabe joined the rotation and started 17 games with a 3.80 ERA. He extended his stable pitching in 1992, recording a 3.84 ERA in 23 starts, but also walked a league-leading 84 batters. He slumped to 2-6 with a 4.50 ERA in 1993, and the Whales started to use him as a swingman this year. He bounced back and had a 2.55 ERA and a 4-5 record in 1994. However, Tanabe struggled as his ERA rose to 5.53 in 1995, and he announced his retirement after the 1996 season when his season ERA worsened to 6.91.

Overall, Tanabe was 20-33 with a 4.08 ERA and pitched 578 innings in 8 seasons in NPB.