Hiroyuki Watanabe (baseball)

Hiroyuki Watanabe (渡邉博幸, Watanabe Hiroyuki, born June 29, 1970 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan) is a Japanese former professional baseball utility player. He played for the Chunichi Dragons.

Hiroyuki Watanabe
渡邉博幸
Chunichi Dragons – No. 76
First baseman/Coach
Born: (1970-06-29) June 29, 1970
Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Batted: Right Threw: Right
NPB debut
September 28, 1996, for the Chunichi Dragons
Last NPB appearance
27 September, 2007, for the Chunichi Dragons
NPB statistics
(through 2007)
Games Played859
Batting average.269
Home runs11
RBI123
Teams
As player

As Coach

Career highlights and awards

He is currently the second team infield defense and baserunning for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan's Western League.

Career

Watanabe was mostly used as a utility infielder for most of his career but captured a golden glove in 2004 as a regular. After Tyrone Woods was brought to the club, Watanabe's appearances became more limited to an off the bench role.

After retirement, Watanabe has worked with the Dragons backroom mostly as a defensive specialist where he was most prominent as 1st base coach under Motonobu Tanishige's reign as manager.[1]

After Tanishige's sacking and the appointment of Shigekazu Mori as manager, Watanabe served as second team defensive coach before moving into a scorers role in 2018. Ahead of the 2020 season, Watanabe was brought back to the second team coaching staff by Tsuyoshi Yoda after the promotion of Masahiro Araki to the first team after the departure of Hiroshi Narahara to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.[2]

References

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