Toru Nimura

Toru Nimura (仁村 徹)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 165 lb.

• School Toyo University
• High School Ageo High School

• Born December 26, 1961 in Kawagoe, Saitama Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Toru Nimura played for 14 years in Nippon Pro Baseball. He is the brother of Kaoru Nimura.

Toru Nimura was a pitcher in college, winning 29 games. The Chunichi Dragons took him in the second round in the 1983 NPB draft. His lone game as a pitcher in NPB was in 1984; he pitched 1 2/3 shutout innings, allowing no hits but walking two. He was moved off the mound in 1985 and hit .200/.212/.340 in 55 plate appearances in 1986. He became a starter at second base in 1987 and batted .287/.328/.426 with 11 dingers.

Nimura hit .306/.361/.433 in 1988; had he qualified, he would have been 5th in the Central League in average. He hit .270/.320/.401 in 1989 and .298/.360/.401 in 1990. The Kawagoe native slumped to .244/.323/.313 in 1991 and .212/.311/.326 while falling into a backup role in 1992. Toru rebounded to .318/.378/.494 with 12 home runs in 267 AB in 1993; had he qualified, he would have been third in the CL in average behind Bobby Rose and Tom O'Malley. He faded back to .258/.320/.337 in 1994 while splitting time at third. He hit .259/.314/.379 in 1995, still Chunichi's most-used third sacker.

The Dragons traded him with Tadaharu Sakai and Yasushi Yamamoto to the Chiba Lotte Marines for Yukinaga Maeda, Kazutoshi Higuchi and Sadaharu Hiranuma. He produced at a .251/.318/.332 as a part-time first baseman for Chiba Lotte in 1996, then batted .269/.365/.380 as a bench player in 1997, his last season.

In 1,068 games in NPB, Nimura hit .273/.334/.389. He later managed Chunichi's farm team and coached for the Dragons as well.

Primary Source: Japanbaseballdaily.com