Takayuki Terauchi

Takayuki Terauchi (寺内 崇幸)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 162 lb.

• High School Tochigi Kogyo High School

• Born May 27, 1983 in Tochigi, Tochigi Japan

BR Japan page

Biographical Information

Takayuki Terauchi has been an infielder in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Terauchi played for Japan Rail Higashi Nihon in the industrial leagues after high school. In the 2006 Intercontinental Cup, he was only 4 for 23 with a double, 2 walks, 2 steals, 2 runs and 2 RBI in 8 games as the starting 2B for the Japanese national team; he fielded .972. He formed an infield with Kanya Suzuki, Naoto Watanabe and Yasuyuki Saigo. He was 0 for 2 in the 4-0 Bronze Medal game loss to Taiwan, retired twice by Chien-Fu Yang, before exiting the game. The Yomiuri Giants took him in the 6th round of the 2006 NPB draft.

Terauchi made it to NPB in 2008, wearing 00. He debuted as a pinch-runner for Michihiro Ogasawara. His first at-bat came May 24 and he singled off Kazuyuki Hoashi. He hit .301/.346/.370 in 80 plate appearances over 62 games that year, backing up at 2B and 3B primarily. He was 0 for 3 in the 2008 Japan Series, won by the Seibu Lions. In 2009, he got his first homer, taking Wei-Yin Chen deep April 18. It was a bright spot in a poor year (.167/.205/.226, the 1 HR in 92 PA over 78 G). He was a defensive sub for Ogasawara at 3B (.970) and the #4 option at 2B behind Takuya Kimura, Ryota Wakiya and Shigeyuki Furuki. He played three games in the 2009 Japan Series as Yomiuri beat the Nippon Ham Fighters but did not bat.

Used almost exclusively as a defensive sub and pinch-runner in 2010, he was 0 for 8 with 4 whiffs and 3 runs in 31 games. He hit .178/.214/.215 in 128 plate appearances over 73 games in 2011, backing up Daisuke Fujimura at 2B and serving as one of many options at 3B. He saw regular action backing up Fujimura in 2B in 2012, batting .241/.307/.293 in 225 plate appearances over 103 games, fielding .991 at second. Starting in the 2012 Japan Series, he was 4 for 19 with a double, two runs and a steal. Yomiuri won both that Series and the 2012 Asia Series.

In 2013, the Tochigi native was the main second baseman for the Giants, hitting .225/.265/.279 with only 24 runs and 12 RBI in 114 games. His 21 sacrifice hits were 7th in the Central League, between Kensuke Uchimura and Masahiro Araki. He fielded .984 at 2B. He made the CL All-Star team when Hector Luna backed out. With four homers in 703 regular-season at-bats to that point, he suddenly became a slugger in the postseason. He hit a 3-run homer off former Sawamura Award winner Kenta Maeda to give the Giants all their runs in Game 2 of the Climax Series. In the 2013 Japan Series, his Game 2 homer off two-time Sawamura Award winner Masahiro Tanaka was the lone Yomiuri run.

Sources: yakyubaka.com, japanbaseballdaily.com, Japanese Wikipedia, Taiwan Baseball Wiki, japanball.com, IBAF