Koji Uehara

Infobox NPB player
bgcolor1=#fd5a1e
bgcolor2=black
textcolor1=white
textcolor2=white
name=Koji Uehara

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position=Pitcher
team=Yomiuri Giants
number=19
bats=Right
throws=Right
birthdate=birth date and age|1975|4|3
debutyear=1999
debutdate=April 4
debutteam=Yomiuri Giants
statyear=2006
stat1label=Win-Loss-Tie
stat1value=102-54-0
stat2label=Innings pitched
stat2value=1397.1
stat3label=Strikeouts
stat3value=1238
teams=
*Yomiuri Giants (by|1999–present)

Koji Uehara (上原 浩治 born April 3, 1975 in Neyagawa, Osaka) is a right handed starting pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan's Central League. He is 186 cm (6 ft 1 in) tall and weighs 86 kg (190 lb).

Japanese baseball

He graduated from Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences, and drafted in first pick by Giants in 1998, he had a successful rookie year in 1999, having 15 consecutive wins which breaks the all-time rookie record, claiming the Rookie of the Year, Sawamura Award, and leading in wins, ERA, strikeouts and winning precentages.

In 2001, he finished with a 4.02 ERA, his highest yet. However, in 2002, he rebounded, leading the Central League in wins and collecting his second Sawamura Award.

He was injuried before the 2007 season which made him a late appearance, and in that season, he became a closer instead, recorded an 1.74 ERA with 4 wins, 3 losses and 32 saves. Through showing a good ability both starting and closing, he returned as a starting pitcher in the 2008 season.

International competition

Uehara is reknowed of his performance in international competition. He participated in international events since he was in the University, he also participated Olympic Games twice, as well as the first World Baseball Classic, and participated in Asian Baseball Championsips. He have 12 wins and 2 saves, without a loss in his 25 appearances from the above events.

He was a member of the Japanese National Baseball team which competed in the 2004 Olympic games in Athens. The team eventually won the bronze medal.

In 2006, he joined Team Japan for the World Baseball Classic and earned 2 wins, making his unbeaten record in international competition (including ameuter appearances) to 21 appearances with 12 wins. In the World Baseball Classic team Japan beat team Cuba to win the championship. He led the tournament with 16 strikeouts. He was a closer in 2007 Asian Baseball Championships, played in two games and earned his first international save against Korea.

Through his performance in 2008 was extremely unstable, and even being demoted to farm team in late April. He remains in the 39-out-of-77 men candidate list towards the Beijing Olympics in late June. And was selected as the final 24-men list in mid-July. He was expected to be a set-up pitcher but not a starting pitcher or closer before the Olympic Games, due to his instability in that season, but he remains as an closer in his first appearance against Chinese Taipei, shuts out the game without yielding a hit, winning 6-1. And earns his first Olympic save against Canada, helding a 1-0 victory two days later. However, after the Japan finished fourth in the games, he shows no interest on participating the World Baseball Classic in 2009 in an interview, which meaning the the record was no likely to be extended, or stopped.

Scouting report

Uehara has two types of splitters, a cut fastball, a slider and an 88-90 mph fastball with late movement. But his greatest arsenal is forkball, which is almost unhittable. He possesses good command and believes that to walk a batter is worse than allow a base hit.

Inclination for MLB

Uehara has been asserting his preference in public to be transferred to a Major League Baseball team, through the infamous posting system. His efforts have (so far) been rebuffed by the Yomiuri Giants front office. He was expected to be eligible for free agency in 2007 (but now postponed to 2008 due to his injury in last season. And he was finally eligible for FA in 4th, April, 2008 [ [http://www.jiji.com/jc/c?g=spo_30&k=2008040400690 時事ドットコム ] ] ). Somewhat ironically, back in 1998 Uehara rejected a contract worth $3 million from the then-Anaheim Angels and signed with Yomiuri instead following the advice from his family and acquaintances. The Angels have expressed their continued interest in Uehara, as Scouting Director Eddie Bane has stated that acquiring either Uehara or Daisuke Matsuzaka is a top priority for the team. However, many other teams, including the Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox and Mets have shown interest in bidding for Uehara if and when he becomes available. He also has been a friend of Roger Clemens since Clemens visited Japan in 2004 as a member of MLB all star team. MLB web page provided the episode that Clemens gave Uehara his game-used black glove with autograph [http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060317&content_id=1353531&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb] .

Personality

Uehara collects other famous players' items as his memories. For example, gloves, bats, caps, shoes, wears and so on.

Career in Japan

Statistics
Year	Team	G	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	IP	SO	R	ERA
1999	Yomiuri Giants	25	20	4	0	12	1	197⅔	179	49	2.09
2000	Yomiuri Giants	20	9	7	0	6	1	131	126	53	3.57
2001	Yomiuri Giants	24	10	7	0	4	1	138⅔	108	66	4.02
2002	Yomiuri Giants	26	17	5	0	8	3	204	182	65	2.60
2003	Yomiuri Giants	27	16	5	0	11	1	207⅓	194	76	3.17
2004	Yomiuri Giants	22	13	5	0	2	0	163	153	54	2.60
2005	Yomiuri Giants	27	9	12	0	6	2	187⅓	145	73	3.31
2006	Yomiuri Giants	24	8	9	0	5	0	168⅓	151	67	3.21
2007	Yomiuri Giants	55	4	3	32	0	0	62	66	12	1.74
Career Total		245	104	57	32	54	9	1459⅓	1304	515	2.96

*Bold = led league

Awards in Japan

{|
-
align="left"|Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Game
align="left"|1999-2005, 2007

References

External links

* [http://www.kouji19.net/ Koji Uehara official site + kouji19.net +] jp icon
*japanese baseball|id=1071
* [http://www.armchairgm.com/index.php?title=Koji_Uehara ArmchairGM Profile Page for Koji Uehara]