Takayuki Saito

Takayuki Saito (斉藤 宜之)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 171 lb.

• High School Yokohama High School

• Born June 10, 1976 in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Takayuki Saito has played in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Saito was drafted by the Yomiuri Giants in the fourth round of the 1994 NPB draft. He spent the first seven years mainly in the NPB Farm leagues, and only played 143 at-bats combined with the big club. He also represented Japan in the 1999 Intercontinental Cup, hitting .364/.464/.364 with two runs and one RBI in eight games; manning all three outfield spots at different times, he had 14 putouts, an assist and no errors. Japan won the Bronze.

He broke out and hit .310/.339/.435 with 5 homers in 2002. Saito went 1-for-3 in first three games of the 2002 Nippon Series, and shined in Game 4. He was 3-for-4, with a 2-run homer off Fumiya Nishiguchi, and won the Outstanding Player Award. The Giants swept the Seibu Lions, and Saito won his first Nippon Series title. The Fujisawa native played 109 games in 2003, and his batting line was .289/.318/.463 with a career-high 11 homers. Saito slumped to 194/.231/.306 in 2004, so he lost his starting spot. He only played 84 more games in the next two seasons, then the Giants released him. The Yakult Swallows picked him up, but he only played 25 games for them with the big club in 2008. Saito stayed in the ni-gun for the entire 2009 season, then announced his retirement after that season. He was a scout for the Swallows from 2010 to 2014, and also worked as ni-gun batting coach from 2015 to 2016.

Overall, Saito had hit .268/.299/.392 in 11 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan
• Defunct IBAF site