Yosuke Takasu

Yosuke Takasu (高須 洋介)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 6", Weight 160 lb.

• School Aoyama Gakuin University
• High School Kanazawa High School

• Born February 9, 1976 in Imari, Saga Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Yosuke Takasu has played in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Takasu was drafted by the Kintetsu Buffaloes in the second round of the 1997 NPB draft. He spent the first years in the NPB Farm leagues, and only played 3 games with big club. He also represented Japan in the 1997 Intercontinental Cup. Takasu became the starting second baseman in 1999, and he hit .225/.309/.307 with 2 homers. However, he underwent Tommy John Surgery and missed the 2000 and 2001 season. He came back and hit .255/.280/.380 in 2002, but he only hit .125/.222/.208 and mainly stayed in the ni-gun in 2003. He struggled in 2004 as his batting line declined to .163/.215/.224. When the Rakuten Golden Eagles was founded in 2005, Takasu was assigned to there.

Takasu secured the starting second baseman spot of the Golden Eagles, and he also collected the first hit, first double and first run in Rakuten's history. He ended up batting .278/.318/.341 with 14 steals. The Saga native improved to .300/.373/.357 with 10 swipes in 2006, and ranked 5th in OBP (.08 behind Nobuhiko Matsunaka). Takasu extended his solid performance, and hit .283/.334/.347 with 15 steals in 2007. He had a incredible .470 RISP batting average in the first half of the 2007 season, and ended up leading the league with .386 RISPBA. Takasu set the Rakuten's record with a 16-game hitting streak in the next season, and ended up batting .282/.338/.371 with a league-leading 32 sacrifice bunts. He injured his left foot in 2009, so he only played 67 games in that season. He came on August and recorded a .304/.361/.382 batting line. In 2009 Climax Series, he blasted a leadoff homer off Toshiya Sugiuchi in Game 1 and help the Golden Eagles won the first series in the playoff in their history.

Takasu bounced back with a career-high 6 homers and a .268/.333/.360 batting line in 2010. He extended his stable performance and batted .277/.330/.312 in 2011. However, he suffered a right elbow injury, so he only played 79 games combined in the next two seasons. He also missed the first Nippon Series in Rakuten's history due to an injury. Takasu was released by the Golden Eagles after the 2013 season. He joined the Niigata Albirex Baseball Club of the Baseball Challenge League in 2014, then announced his retirement after that season. He was the batting coach for the minor league team of the Yokohama BayStars from 2015 to 2017, and came back to the Golden Eagles and worked as their batting coach in 2018. He joined the Wei Chuan Dragons of the CPBL and became their defense coach from 2020 to 2021, and served as the hitting coach for their minor league team since 2023.

Overall, Takasu had hit .268/.327/.337 with 67 steals in 15 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan
• Taiwan Baseball Wiki
• Defunct IBAF site