Satoshi Nagai

Satoshi Nagai (永井 怜)

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

• School Toyo University
• High School The Second High School, Tokyo University of Agriculture

• Born September 27, 1984 in Fujioka, Gunma Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Satoshi Nagai has been an All-Star pitcher in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Nagai was 12-12 with a 2.92 ERA in college. He pitched for Japan in the 2006 World University Championship and graduated with a law degree. The Rakuten Golden Eagles took him in the first round in the 2006 NPB draft. He was 7-7 with a 3.61 ERA in 38 games (16 starts) as a rookie in 2007. His 51 walks tied Nagisa Arakaki for third in the Pacific League. He fell to 6-7, 4.68 in 2008. His 17 homers allowed tied Shunsuke Watanabe for 7th in the PL while his 47 walks were 8th. He made the PL All-Star team.

Nagai was very effective in 2009, going 13-7 with a 3.42 ERA. He finished 10th in the circuit in ERA, tied Hisashi Iwakuma and Takayuki Kishi for third in wins, tied D.J. Houlton for 7th in innings (171), tied for fifth in complete games (5), tied for 3rd in shutouts (2, behind Hideaki Wakui and Masahiro Tanaka), tied for 7th with 17 homers allowed (even with Masaru Takeda and Satoshi Komatsu), was 10th in hits allowed (153), tied for third with 8 hit batsmen, tied for second with 7 wild pitches (one behind Kohei Hasebe), was 7th in strikeouts (144) and was 7th with 50 walks (between Brian Sweeney and Hasebe). He was a solid #3 hurler for Rakuten behind Tanaka and Iwakuma.

#30 was 10-10 with a 3.42 ERA in 2010. He finished among the league leaders in losses (tied for 4th with Kazuki Kondo and Shogo Yamamoto), innings (182 2/3, tied for 6th with Toshiya Sugiuchi), hits allowed (173, tied for 5th with Yoshihisa Naruse and Kazuyuki Hoashi), complete games (4, tied for 7th with Iwakuma and Hiroshi Kisanuki), homers allowed (20, 3rd behind Naruse and Wakui), walks (69, 3rd behind Bill Murphy and Kisanuki), earned runs (76, tied for 3rd with Darrell Rasner), runs (82, 5th, between Rasner and Kondo) and opponent average (.254, 8th, between Iwakuma and Wakui).

Satoshi started 2011 strong but was derailed by a right shoulder injury and finished at 4-5 with a 2.81 ERA. He was 1-3 with a 3.29 ERA in 2012 and 2-4 with a 3.46 ERA in 2013. He was not used in the 2013 Japan Series as Rakuten won its first Japan Series title. He beat the Canberra Cavalry in game 2 of the 2013 Asia Series but Rakuten was ousted in their next outing to become the first NPB team not to reach an Asia Series finale.

Nagai throws a fastball (around 90 mph), shuuto, slider, curveball and forkball.