Nagisa Arakaki

Nagisa Arakaki (新垣 渚, Arakaki Nagisa^?, born May 9, 1980 in Naha, Okinawa) is a Japanese professional baseball player. He is currently with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Despite having one of the best fastballs and sliders of anyone in the league, Arakaki has battled control problems and injuries throughout his career. In 2007, Arakaki set the NPB record for most wild pitches in a season with 21, breaking Kazuhisa Ishii's record.

Arakaki was first seen at the 1998 Koshien summer tournament, and caught the eyes of many scouts with his fastball and sharp break on his slider. Despite his team not going far in the tournament, he was scouted by the Orix BlueWave and offered a contract. However, Arakaki turned it down stating that he did not intend to play for Orix. Incidentally, Katsutoshi Miwata who scouted Arakaki subsequently jumped to his death from an apartment building.

In both 2008 and 2009, Arakaki has been in and out of the lineup due to persistent shoulder problems. From the end of '07 to late '08, the righty did not win a start, a stretch that spanned from September 17, 2007, to August 28, 2008. In the 2008 campaign, Arakaki finished with a 4-6 record and a 4.18 ERA. The 2009 season was far less kind, as the embattled righty went 0-2 with a 7.91 ERA whilst battling shoulder injuries. He did not pitch at the Major League level in 2010, and he only pitched in 10 games at ni-gun, going 3-5 with a 4.50 ERA, 30 walks and 35 strikeouts in 48 innings.

Pitching Style

When he was drafted, Arakaki was considered one of the best pure power pitchers in the league, with a fastball that could consistently sit in 90-93 mph, and went as high as 155 km/h (96 mph) with an excellent slider that had late downward break. However, control has always been Arakaki's Achilles' heel, as he set the NPB record for wild pitches in 2007, a record that had been previously held by Kazuhisa Ishii, who was also a power pitcher with great breaking balls, but was also well known for his control problems.

Recently, Arakaki's career has been plagued by recurrent shoulder and elbow problems. He had elbow surgery performed on him in the 2008 offseason, and had shoulder surgery in December 2009.

External links

• Nippon Professional Baseball career statistics from Japanesebaseball.com
• Japan Baseball Daily