Satoshi Niimi

Satoshi Niimi (新美 敏)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 173 lb.

• High School PL Gakuen High School

• Born August 2, 1952 in Yamaga, Kumamoto Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Satoshi Niimi was a Rookie of the Year in Japan but faded quickly.

Niimi played for Nihon Musical Instruments in the industrial leagues after high school. He was on the Japanese national team in the 1972 Amateur World Series. The Nittaku Home Flyers picked him in the first round of the 1972 NPB draft. He tossed a shutout against the Lotte Orions in his debut and went 12-13 with a 3.64 ERA for the 1973 season. He had a big workload, starting 27 games and relieving in 27 others, working 222 1/3 IP. He was among the Pacific League leaders in numerous departments: wins (tied for 7th), losses (tied for 7th with Shigeo Ishii and Keishi Suzuki), games pitched (3rd, behind Michiro Sato and Soroku Yagisawa), shutouts (2, tied for 10th), innings (4th, between Shinichi Yamauchi and Takenori Emoto), hits allowed (223, 2nd, 27 behind Osamu Higashio), runs (99, 3rd behind Higashio and Toshihiko Sei), earned runs (90, 3rd behind Higashio and Sei), walks (78, tied for 6th with Yamauchi), strikeouts (117, 3rd after Fumio Narita and Suzuki) and hit batsmen (8, tied for 10th with Naoki Takahashi). Niimi was named the PL Rookie of the Year.

Niimi remained fairly steady (12-14, 2 Sv, 3.83) in 1974, when the team became the Nippon Ham Fighters. He made his lone All-Star team. In the first 1974 NPB All-Star Game, he relieved Masaaki Kitaru in the 4th with a 2-1 deficit and pitched two shutout innings (1 H, 1 BB, 1 K) before Choji Murata succeeded him and the PL went on to a 3-2 win. In the third All-Star Game that year, he replaced Yamauchi in the 6th with a scoreless game. He tossed two hitless frames, with one walk and two whiffs, while the PL scored in the top of the 9th. Murata wrapped it up as Niimi got the decision in a 1-0 win. For the season, he was tied for 4th in the PL in wins (behind Tomehiro Kaneda, Emoto and Kitaru), tied with Koji Ota for second in losses (one shy of Suzuki), 4th with 10 complete games, tied for 7th in shutouts, 3rd in IP (209 1/3, after Suzuki and Emoto), second in hits allowed (194, one behind Suzuki), led in runs allowed (9, 4 over Ota), led with 89 earned runs (5 more than Ota), served up the most homers (25, four more than Narita or Ota) and was 8th with 62 walks (between Koichi Nakayama and Sanshiro Nishioka).

Niimi faded to 4-9 with a save and a 5.42 ERA in 1975, walking 61 in 144 1/3 IP. He tied Osamu Nomura for 5th in games pitched (37), was third with 95 runs allowed (trailing Hisahio and Hisashi Yamada, both of whom worked significantly more innings), was second to Yamada with 87 earned runs and was 8th in walks. In 1976, he was 2-7 with two saves, a 4.77 ERA and .287 opponent average.

The Flyers then traded him with Yasuo Minagawa, Junzo Uchida and Toshihiko Kosaka to the Hiroshima Carp for Kazushi Saeki, Yukinobu Miyamoto and Toshimi Kubo. He remained with Hiroshima for over a decade, rarely seeing much action. He was 3-7 with a 6.12 ERA and .301 opponent average in 1977, allowing 15 hits and 7 runs in 9 2/3 IP in 1978 (1 Sv), was 0-1 with one unearned run in 3 2/3 IP in 1979, gave up 4 runs in 7 innings in 1980, did not pitch for the club in 1981 and tossed one shutout inning in 1982.

When he worked 46 innings over 29 games in 1983, it marked a bigger workload than the prior five seasons combined. He was 1-0 with a 1.57 ERA, .89 WHIP and .196 opponent average. He was 1-0 with a 2.11 ERA in 16 games in 1984. In the 1984 Japan Series, he threw out two shutout innings (3 hits allowed) in a 8-3 game 6 loss to the Hankyu Braves, pitching between Manabu Kitabeppu and Kazuo Yamamoto. Hiroshima put away the Series in game 7. Niimi was 0-1 with a 4.26 ERA in 18 games in 1985, had a 3.60 ERA and a .311 opponent average in 15 IP in 1986 and allowed one run in two innings in 1987.

For his career, he had gone 35-52 with 6 saves and a 4.20 ERA in 275 games (93 starts). In 868 innings, he allowed 873 hits and 296 walks while striking out 429. He coached for Hiroshima from 1988 to 1991 and for Nippon Ham from 1992 to 1994.