Yuya Kamada

Yuya Kamada (鎌田 祐哉)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 187 lb.

• School Waseda University
• High School North Asia University Meioh High School

• Born November 30, 1978 in Akita, Akita Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Yuya Kamada has pitched in Japan and Taiwan.

Kamada was 13-17 in his college career and once was picked to the Tokyo Big Six University League Best Nine. The Yakult Swallows took him in the second round of the 2000 NPB draft. He made his debut with the big club in 2001, going 1-0 with only one run in 15 1/3 IP. He had a 3-2, 3.78 record in 2002. He had his busiest Nippon Pro Baseball season in 2003, going 6-7 with a 3.21 ERA and only 25 walks in 115 innings, making 15 starts and 15 relief appearances. He tied Kei Igawa, Masafumi Hirai, Kimiyasu Kudoh, Hiroshi Kisanuki and Domingo Guzman for the Central League lead in shutouts (2). Had he qualified, he would have ranked 5th in the CL in ERA behind Igawa, Hirai, Hiroki Kuroda and Koji Uehara.

Things were not as good in 2004 (1-3, .306 opponent average, 6.26 ERA) and he did not pitch in NPB in 2005. Returning in 2006, he turned in a 3-1, 5.06 campaign. He was excellent out of the Swallows bullpen in 2007 (0-1, 1.16 in 22 G) despite missing the early part of the year after a torn labrum but far from excellent the next year (0-2, 6.86, .355 opponent average in 21 G). He ended his NPB career with 7 runs in 12 innings in 2009. Overall, his career NPB record was 14-18, 4.04 in 125 games (40 starts) with a 1.30 WHIP.

Kamada spent a couple years in the Rakuten Golden Eagles farm team then went to Taiwan. He was superb for the Uni-President Lions in 2012, going 16-7 with a 3.15 ERA and only 32 walks in 173 1/3 IP. He led the league in wins (4 ahead of runner-up and teammate Jon Leicester) and tied Hisanori Yokota for the most wins by a NPB hurler in CPBL history. He struck out 119, good for second place, 18 behind Matt DeSalvo. He also was the first Japanese pitcher to start in a CPBL All-Star Game. He pitched poorly in game 4 of the 2012 Taiwan Series, though, losing to Mike Loree; the Lions fell to the Lamigo Monkeys, 4 games to 1.

Kamada throws a cutter, curveball, shuuto, slider and fastball (peak around 92 mph).

Sources

• japanbaseballdaily.com
• Taiwan Baseball Wiki
• CPBL page

Related Sites

• Kamada's blog