Kensuke Uchimura

Kensuke Uchimura (内村 賢介) (Utchi)

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 5' 4", Weight 143 lb.

• High School Yamanasaki Gakuin High School

• Born March 17, 1986 in Tokyo Japan

Biographical Information

Kensuke Uchimura has been an infielder in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Uchimura played in the industrial leagues then in the independent Baseball Challenge League, which he led in steals in 2007. He was drafted by the Rakuten Golden Eagles. He hit .289/.327/.322 and stole 9 bases in 12 tries in 47 games in 2008. He backed up Yosuke Takasu at second base primarily. His first hit came August 3, an infield hit off Tatsuo Kato. He was both the shortest NPB player in some time and also the first NPB player to come out of the Baseball Challenge League. He was only 11 for 68 with 10 walks, two doubles and 10 steals (in 12 tries) in 2009.

The Tokyo native improved to .304/.367/.343 with 10 steals (caught 7 times, though) in 111 games in 2010. He was 7th in the Pacific League in times caught stealing. In 2011, the little switch-hitter became the starting second sacker for Rakuten. He batted .271/.325/.315, fielded .990 at 2B and stole 31 bases in 41 attempts. He hit his first career home run September 24 against Shota Oba. He was among the PL leaders in steals (tied for 5th with Yoshio Itoi and Munenori Kawasaki), times caught stealing (tied for 4th with Kawasaki and Yasuyuki Kataoka) and sacrifice hits (42, tied for third with Keiji Obiki).

Sources

• Japanbaseballdaily.com by Gary Garland
• Japanese Wikipedia entry
• Taiwan Baseball Wiki