Tetsuya Kakiuchi

Tetsuya Kakiuchi (垣内 哲也)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 198 lbs.

• High School Hidaka High School

• Born June 6, 1970 in Hidaka-gun, Wakayama Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Tetsuya Kakiuchi played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 16 years.

Kakiuchi was drafted by the Seibu Lions in the third round of the 1988 NPB draft, but he spent most of his first four seasons in the NPB Farm Leagues, and only played 15 games combined in the Pacific League. He played well in ni-gun, and led the Eastern League in homers and RBI in 1991. Kakiuchi split time between catcher and outfielder in 1993, and hit .221/.309/.465 in 47 games, starting to see some regular time in the PL. He slumped to .184/.266/.382 in 1994, then had a .216/.288/.400 batting line in 1995. Kakiuchi was also selected into the 1995 NPB All-Star Games, pinch-running Hiromi Matsunaga and scoring in Game 1, then pinch-hit for Glenn Braggs but being retired by Hideki Irabu in game 2.

The Wakayama native broke out in 1996, hitting .253/.319/.535 with 28 homers; he ranked 4th in homers in the Pacific League (4 behind Troy Neel). When Kazuhiro Kiyohara jumped to the Yomiuri Giants after this season, Kakiuchi was expected to succeed him as Seibu's cleanup hitter. However, he suffered from a knee injury, so he only played 87 games combined over the next two seasons. Kakiuchi came back in 1999 and hit .248/.303/.404 with 15 homers.

He was then a reliable 4th outfielder in the next two years, hitting .233/.331/.425 with 13 homers in 2000 and .226/.352/.477 with 14 homers in 2001. He only had 134 at-bats in 2002, then the Lions traded him to the Chiba Lotte Marines for Takumi Shigi. Kakiuchi still didn't have many chances with the Marines, only getting 142 at-bats combined in four seasons, and he announced his retirement after the 2006 season. He was the batting coach for the Chunichi Dragons from 2010 to 2011, and worked for the minor league team of the Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2020 to 2022. He is the batting coach for the Fubon Guardians of the CPBL in 2023.

Overall, Kakiuchi had hit .227/.310/.426 with 510 hits and 11 homers in 16 seasons in NPB. He is the only player to record more than 100 homers in both major league and minors in NPB history.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan
• 1995 NPB All Star Game