Munenori Kawasaki

Munenori Kawasaki
Seattle Mariners — No. 61
Shortstop
Born: (1981-06-03) June 3, 1981 (age 30) Aira, Kagoshima, Japan
Bats: Left	Throws: Right
Professional debut
NPB: October 3, 2001 for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks
MLB: April 7, 2012 for the Seattle Mariners
NPB statistics
Batting average	.294
Home runs	27
Runs batted in	369
Hits	1,343
Stolen bases	267
MLB statistics (through May 25, 2012)
Batting average	.162
Home runs	0
Runs batted in	2
Teams
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (2000–2011)[A] (NPB) Seattle Mariners (2012–present)
Career highlights and awards
8× NPB All-Star (2004 - 2011) 2× Best Nine Award winner (2004, 2006) 2× Golden Glove Award winner (2004, 2006) 2004 PL Stolen Base Champion

Medal record
Competitor for  Japan
Men’s Baseball
World Baseball Classic
Gold	2006 San Diego	Team
Gold	2009 Los Angeles	Team

Munenori Kawasaki (川﨑 宗則, Kawasaki Munenori^?, born June 3, 1981 in Aira, Kagoshima, Japan) is a Japanese shortstop for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball. Previously, he played for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball.^[1] He played for the Japanese national team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as the 2006^[2] and 2009 World Baseball Classics.

Early life and high school career

Kawasaki was born in Aira, a town in central Kagoshima Prefecture in the south of Japan. He began playing baseball after his older brother got him into the sport. Though he was a pitcher throughout his early years, Kawasaki switched to shortstop after enrolling in Kagoshima Prefectural Technical High School.

Kawasaki remained largely an unknown on the national level during his high school career, partly due to his team's failing to make any national tournaments in those three years. Still, he made a name for himself locally, earning the nickname Satsurō, a portmanteau derived from Satsuma (the name given to a former province of Japan in present-day western Kagoshima) and current Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki's first name for the similarities in their playing styles. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 1999 NPB amateur draft by the then-Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.

Professional career

Early years: 2000 to 2002

Kawasaki earned the starting shortstop job for the Hawks' nigun team (Japanese for "minor league" or "farm team") in his rookie season (2000), hitting .300 and finishing fifth in the Western League in batting average that year. In 2001, his second season in the pros, he came second (to only then-Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles outfielder Akihito Moritani) with 29 stolen bases. He made his debut at the ichigun (major league) level on October 3 against the Orix BlueWave as the starting shortstop and No. 2 hitter, but went hitless in four at-bats that year.

Kawasaki hit .367 in the Western League the following year (2002), winning the batting title despite falling short of the required number of plate appearances because of league regulations. He got the first hit of his career on June 15 against right-hander Jeremy Powell, then of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, and his first stolen base on June 19 against the Seibu Lions. He was called up to the ichigun team again in September to fill in for Tadahito Iguchi as the team's regular second baseman while Iguchi missed time due to injury and also played in the 15th IBAF International Cup as a member of the Japanese national team.

2003 to 2005

In 2003, Kawasaki started in the Hawks' season opener for the first time in his career because of injuries to veteran Yusuke Torigoe, starting at shortstop as the team's No. 2 hitter. After Torigoe returned to the lineup, Kawasaki moved over to third base,^[3] wreaking havoc on the basepaths along with leadoff hitter Arihito Muramatsu and Iguchi (who sat in the 3-hole). He hit his first career home run on July 28 off Buffaloes right-hander Ken Kadokura, and while he finished the season just short of .300, he played his first full season at the ichigun level and hit .294 with two homers, 51 RBI and 30 steals,^[4] playing a key role in the Hawks' league title and eventual Japan Series championship.^[5]

Kawasaki became the Hawks' starting shortstop for the 2004 season, playing in all 133 regular season games and hitting over .300 for the first time in his career. He led the league in both hits (174, tied with teammate and cleanup hitter Nobuhiko Matsunaka) and steals (42) and was chosen to both the Best Nine^[6] and Golden Glove awards. Kawasaki declined the team's offer to change his uniform number from 52 to 8 during the off-season. (The number is an homage to Ichiro Suzuki, who wears the number 51; Kawasaki idolized Suzuki from a young age and picked the number because he wanted to "follow" in Suzuki's footsteps.^[7])

Kawasaki had a somewhat disappointing season in 2005, seeing his batting average drop off from .303 in 2004 to .271 and his on-base percentage from .359 to just .326, knocking in just 36 runs and stealing only 21 bases. Despite this, he was named to the Japanese national team to play in the inaugural World Baseball Classic during the off-season.

2006 to 2008

Coming off a championship in the inaugural World Baseball Classic, Kawasaki bounced back in 2006, hitting a career-high .312 and winning the Pacific League Best Nine and Golden Glove awards at shortstop (each for the second time). He was also received the most fan votes at shortstop for the MLB Japan All-Star Series held in November, but withdrew from the tournament after injuring the ring finger on his right hand during Fall Training.

Kawasaki suffered various injuries in the 2007 season,^[8] twice spending time in the minors to rehab and playing just 95 games (though he hit .329^[9] and slugged .428, both career highs).

Kawasaki's woes continued into 2008 as he attempted to play through an injury to his left foot. He hit a team-high .366 in interleague games and collected 37 hits (leading the NPB), leading the Hawks to their first interleague title and winning the interleague Most Valuable Player (marking the first time a position player had been named to the award).^[10] However, though he was chosen to play in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a member of the national team, he was diagnosed with periostitis during the tournament. On August 25, Kawasaki was found to have a stress fracture in his second metatarsal bone upon returning to Japan after the Olympics. He made an earlier-than-expected return, coming off the bench in the last game of the regular season (and then-manager Sadaharu Oh's last at the helm) on October 7 against the Eagles, but finished 0-for-2 with an intentional walk (the Hawks lost the game in extra innings).

2012

Kawasaki signed a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training with the Seattle Mariners prior to the 2012 Major League Baseball season.^[11]

In his professional American debut, on March 2, 2012, Kawasaki went 0-3 against the Oakland Athletics, with 2 strikeouts, starting at shortstop. He was replaced in the 6th inning by Carlos Triunfel.^[12]

International career

Kawasaki playing for Japan in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

2006 World Baseball Classic

Kawasaki started at shortstop, mostly as the team's No. 9 hitter, in the inaugural World Baseball Classic^[13] and played a key role in Japan's championship run. Hitting out of the leadoff spot for the first time in the tournament finals against Cuba, Kawasaki attempted to score on a base hit by Ichiro Suzuki in the top of the ninth inning, managing to brush home plate with his right hand while contorting his body and deftly avoiding the catcher's tag to score the tying run for Japan.

While the Japanese media deemed the play sensational and dubbed it The Right Hand of God (à la former Argentine football player Diego Maradona's famous "Hand of God" goal), Kawasaki was later found to have injured his right elbow on the play and did not play in the regular season until mid-April.

2008 Beijing Olympics

In 2008, Kawasaki was chosen to play in the Olympics for the first time as a member of the national team, but ended up playing in just three games (though he went 4-for-7 and scored two runs) due to a nagging left foot injury. Japan came up short in their medal run, finishing fourth behind South Korea, Cuba and the United States.

2009 World Baseball Classic

Kawasaki played in the World Baseball Classic as a member of the national team for the second time in 2009.^[14][15] While he played in just five games and saw only seven at-bats^[16] (mostly as a pinch hitter) due to manager Tatsunori Hara's decision to use Saitama Seibu Lions second baseman Yasuyuki Kataoka over Kawasaki against left-handed starting pitchers, Kawasaki was instrumental in Japan's win over the United States in the tournament semi-finals, starting at third base as Japan's No. 9 hitter and going 2-for-4 with a steal and an RBI.^[17][18]

Playing style

Hitting

Listed at 178 cm (70 in) and 73 kg (160 lb), Kawasaki is best described as a slap hitter, utilizing his exceptional bat control and blazing speed to get on base (often bunting safely to do so). However, he is somewhat lacking in power, even for a middle infielder, having never hit more than four home runs (2004, 2005, 2007) or recorded more than 31 extra-base hits (2004, 2006) for a season.

While Kawasaki is considered by many to be a great base stealer, having led the league in steals in 2004 with 42, his career stolen base percentage is just 70.0 percent (as of 13 May 2009). Modern sabermetric theory suggests that a player needs to be successful 70 to 75 percent of the time in stealing bases to have any kind of positive effect on the team's run production at all.^[19][20]

Fielding

A two-time Golden Glove award winner, Kawasaki has excellent range and instincts at shortstop and has improved on his throwing tremendously since coming into the league. He is also a versatile fielder, having logged time at all four infield positions (including first base) in the pros (though he has played solely at shortstop since 2005).

Notes

References

This article incorporates information from this version of the equivalent article on the Japanese Wikipedia.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Munenori Kawasaki

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• Nippon Professional Baseball career statistics from Japanesebaseball.com
• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Munenori Kawasaki Official Site (Japanese)
• Munenori Kawasaki, JapaneseBallPlayers.com