Tetsuro Kawajiri

Tetsuro Kawajiri (川尻 哲郎)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 191 lb.

• School Asia University
• High School The Second High School of Nihon University

• Born January 5, 1969 in Nakano, Tokyo Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Tetsuro Kawajiri pitched in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Kawajiri represented Japan in the 1994 Baseball World Cup, going 1-1 but with a 8.00 ERA. He lost to Team Canada's Glen Hoffman but beat Erik Lommerde and the Dutch national team. His five appearances tied Dong-hwan Moon, Ross Jones and Sun-dong Im for the tourney lead. The Hanshin Tigers drafted him in the fourth round of the 1994 NPB draft.

He joined the rotation as a rookie, and had a 8-11 with a 3.10 ERA in 1995. He improved and went 13-9 with a 3.26 ERA in 1996, and ranked 4th in the Central League in ERA (.90 behind Masaki Saito). He slumped to 5-14 with a 3.92 ERA in 1997, and led the league in losses. The Tokyo native bounced back and had a career year in 1998. He was selected into the 1998 NPB All-Star Game, and pitched a shutout inning in Game 2. He also completed the only no-hitter in his career on May 26, blanking the Chunichi Dragons. Kawajiri ended up 10-5 with a 2.84 ERA, and ranked 5th in ERA (.50 behind Shigeki Noguchi). His performance declined and he only had a 4.52 ERA in 16 starts in the next season.

Kawajiri came back and went 10-7 with a 3.17 ERA in 2000. He injured in 2001, and his ERA rose to 6.38 in 7 starts. He rejoined the rotation in 2002, and went 5-4 with a 3.02 ERA in 12 starts. When Hideki Irabu joined the team in 2003, Kawajiri was removed from the rotation, and he only pitched 2 games in that season. He was traded to the Kintetsu Buffaloes for Katsuhiko Maekawa after the 2003 season. Kawajiri was 4-9 with a 4.26 ERA in 2004. When the Rakuten Golden Eagles were founded, Kawajiri was assigned there, but he allowed 8 runs in 8 1/3 inning pitched in 2005, and announced his retirement after that season.

Overall, Kawajiri was 60-72 with a 3.65 ERA and pitched 1,083 1/3 innings in 11 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• 1998 NPB All-Star Game
• Wiki Japan
• Defunct IBAF site