Motoyasu Wakai

Motoyasu Wakai (若井 基安)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 7", Weight 165 lb.

• School Hosei University
• High School PL Gakuen High School

• Born August 11, 1963 in Nara Prefecture Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Motoyasu Wakai has played in Nippon Pro Baseball and the Japanese national team.

Wakai was on the Japanese national team in the 1987 Asian Championship. The Chunichi Dragons drafted him in the second round of the 1987 NPB draft. Wakai was named the starting third baseman as a rookie before the 1987 season, but Hiroshi Fujimoto replaced him soon due to Wakai's terrible defense. He ended up hitting .250/.326/.310 in that season. Wakai improved to .281/.379/.356 in 1989, but he couldn't get a regular starting spot due to the crowded Hawks outfield (they already had All-Stars Kazunori Yamamoto, Katsuya Kishikawa and Makoto Sasaki). When Willie Upshaw left the team in the middle of the 1990 season, Wakai took his starting first base spot and hit .265/.327/.349. However, he suffered a injury and missed the entire 1991 season.

After coming back, Wakai was named the main pinch-hitter for the Hawks, and he hit .275/.321/.294 in 45 games in 1992. He improved to .338/.378/.421 in 1993, and won some starting second baseman chances with his good performance. The Nara native extended his solid batting, recorded a .317/.397/.353 in 1994. However, when superstar Hiroki Kokubo joined the team in 1995, Wakai lost his spot again, and he slumped to .257/.315/.317. He was moved to designed hitter and played a career-high 108 games in 1996, but he still only hit .253/.310/.290 with zero home runs. He batted .289/.371/.335 in 1997, and only played 40 games in 1998. After spending the entire 1999 season in the NPB Farm Leagues, Wakai announced his retirement in that year. He was a coach of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks from 2013 to 2014.

Overall, Wakai had hit .279/.352/.335 in 11 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan