Yataro Sakamoto

Yataro Sakamoto (坂元 弥太郎)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 190 lb.
• High School Urawa Gakuin High School
• Born May 24, 1982 in Hiroshima, Hiroshima Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Relief pitcher Yataro Sakamoto played in Nippon Professional Baseball from 2002 to 2013. He was 3-9, 3.68 in 29 games (18 starts) for the Yakult Swallows his rookie campaign, then moved into the bullpen for good the following year, starting only 5 of his 32 appearances. Never oft-used, he averaged only 22 appearances and 37 innings per season. Overall, he was 19-20 with a 4.37 ERA in 238 games (27 starts) over 11 seasons.

In January 2008, Sakamoto was traded to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters with Hajime Miki and Shugo Fujii for Keizo Kawashima, Yoshitaka Hashimoto and Takehiko Oshimoto.

He pitched for the Japanese national team in the 2002 Intercontinental Cup, going 0-1 with a 2.00 ERA; he lost to Patrick Beljaards and the Dutch national team.