Naotaka Takehara

Naotaka Takehara (竹原 直隆)

• Bats Right, Throws Left
• Height 6' 0", Weight 194 lb.

• School Josai University
• High School Kanzei High School

• Born April 21, 1980 in Okayama, Okayama Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Naotaka Takehara has played in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Takehara represented Japan in the 2003 Baseball World Cup, hitting .333/.405/.750 with four homers, nine runs and twelve RBI in ten games as a LF/DH for the Bronze Medal winners. He tied Sharnol Adriana, Tiago Magalhaes and Frederich Cepeda for third in the Cup in homers, one behind Audes de Leon and Takashi Yoshiura. He was also 5th in RBI, trailing only Yoshiura, de Leon, Yuli Gurriel and Daisuke Kusano. He did not make the All-Star team as Rubén Rivera joined Cepeda and Yoshiura in the outfield while de Leon got the nod at DH.

The Chiba Lotte Marines drafted him in the fourth round of the 2004 NPB draft. He hit .313 with 23 homers in Eastern League in his rookie year, leading the league in homers, while he ranked 2nd in RBI and 3rd in batting. Takehara hit .310 with 13 homers and won the home run king of the Eastern League again in 2006. However, he only got 3 at-bats with the big club within these two seasons. His first NPB hit came off Tom Davey.

Takehara was promoted in 2007 as a 4th outfielder, and he hit .246/.299/.492 in 66 games; he went deep 8 times in 122 AB (his first NPB dinger was off Shinji Taninaka). He slumped to .181/.307/.328 in 2008, then bounced back to .228/.344/.349 in 2009. The Okayama native went 10-for-72 in 2010, and the Marines traded him to the Orix Buffaloes for cash in the beginning of the 2011 season.

Takehara only recorded a .205/.247/.244 batting line with the Buffaloes in the 2011 season. He spent the rest of his career mainly in the NPB Farm Leagues, never playing more than 45 games in a year again in the top league. Takehara also led the Western League in homers with 7 in 2012, and became the third player to win home run king titles in both of the NPB Farm Leagues (following Katsumi Yamashita and Ryo Kuwano). The Buffaloes released him after the 2015 season, and the Seibu Lions picked him up. Takehara only played 22 more games with the Lions, then announced his retirement after the 2016 season.

Overall, Takehara had hit .212/.297/.353 in 12 seasons in NPB. He hit 27 homers in 913 NPB at-bats but did not make contact enough.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan
• Defunct IBAF site