Rafael Motooka
Rafael Anthony Motooka de Oliveira
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 0", Weight 200 lb.
- Born April 18, 1982 in Guarulhos, São Paulo Brazil
Biographical Information[edit]
Rafael Motooka caught for seven years in the minor leagues - although he never appeared in more than 30 games in a single season.
Author George Gmelch (Baseball Without Borders) noted that Motooka was the second Brazilian to play minor league ball, following Jose Pett. In 2000, the 17-year-old was 3 for 12 for the GCL Reds. He was not the only Brazilian on the team; Tiago Magalhães was also breaking in then.
Motooka hit .250/.302/.313 as the GCL Reds' most-used catcher in 2001. In 2002, Rafael hit .226/.293/.274 for the Billings Mustangs. In the 2002 Intercontinental Cup, he batted .158/.200/.263 as Brazil's catcher.
Motooka was 0 for 4 with Billings in 2003 and batted .171/.244/.171 for the Potomac Cannons. The Brazilian native hit .150/.190/.300 for Potomac in 2004. The next year, he hit .200/.250/.300 in 10 games for the Sarasota Reds. In 2006 -- finally making the jump to Class AA -- Motooka produced at a .171/.211/.314 clip in 13 games for the Chattanooga Lookouts.
In 7 pro seasons, he had played 113 games, hitting .210/.270/.277.
In the 2007 Pan American Games, Motooka was one of Brazil's best players, going 3 for 6 with 4 walks and a RBI. Of the 20 men on the Brazilian squad, 16 had Japanese ancestry, including Motooka (as one may infer from his surname). As Larry Rohter of the New York Times wrote ahead of the tournament, "Brazil has the largest population of Japanese descent of any country outside Japan, about two million people, and baseball has traditionally been played primarily, if not exclusively, in the three states where the bulk of the Japanese community has settled."
He was far less successful in the 2008 Americas Baseball Cup, going 0 for 19 with 2 walks and 2 times hit by pitch as Brazil finished just 2-6.
He later coached for Brazil in the 2011 South American Championship and scouted for the Atlanta Braves.
Sources[edit]
- 2001-2007 Baseball Almanacs
- Baseballdecuba.com
- Brazilian Pan American Games bios
- Defunct IBAF site
- 2008 Americas Baseball Cup final report
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