Takahiro Arai
| Takahiro Arai | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Arai with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp
|
|||
| Hiroshima Toyo Carp – No. 25 | |||
| First baseman, Third baseman | |||
|
Born: January 30, 1977 Hiroshima, Japan |
|||
|
|||
| NPB debut | |||
| April 3, 1999, for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp | |||
| NPB statistics (through 2016 season) |
|||
| Batting average | .278 | ||
| Hits | 2107 | ||
| Home runs | 306 | ||
| RBI | 1231 | ||
| Teams | |||
|
|||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
| Last updated on: 28 November 2016 | |||
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Representing  Japan
|
||
| Men's Baseball | ||
| World Baseball Classic | ||
 |
2006 San Diego | Team |
Takahiro Arai (Japanese: 新井 貴浩, born January 30, 1977 in Naka-ku, Hiroshima) is a Japanese professional baseball player for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.
His younger brother Ryota is also a professional baseball player currently playing for Hanshin Tigers.
In 1998, he participated in the Tohto University Baseball League and went 6 for 12 against an American collegiate All-Star team, winning him the league's RBI title. He only homered twice in college. He was drafted in the sixth round of the '98 NPB draft by the Hiroshima Carp, the team he had followed as a kid.
In 1999, Arai hit .221/.288/.484 for Hiroshima, but homered 7 times in 95 AB. He was involved in two bone-head plays in the course of a week. On September 14, he did not try to advance on a home run by Eddy Diaz because he thought it would be caught; Diaz passed him on the bases, resulting in an out. A week later, he lost count of the number of outs and threw away the ball after a double play, allowing a run to score.
Seeing an increase in playing time in 2000, he batted .245/.318/.505 with 16 HR in 208 AB. In '01, he was up to .284/.363/.495 with 18 homers in 313 AB. Finally entering the regular lineup at age 25, he split his time between first base and third in 2002 and batted .287/.342/.514 with 28 homers. He was one homer behind Tomoaki Kanemoto for the team lead and made his first All-Star team. He also led the league with 17 errors.
In 2003, Takahiro slipped to .236/.299/402 with 19 HR and a league-high 16 times grounding into double plays, while striking out 120 times as the primary 1B. His playing time was cut back in '04 but he bounced back to .263/.340/.424. Before the 2005 season, he spent four days and three nights at a Buddhist temple to help his focus, adjusting his swing and improved drastically, putting up a .305/.353/.603 line with 91 runs, 43 homers, 94 RBI and 326 total bases. He moved to third primarily, switching spots with Kenjiro Nomura. He was second in the Central League in slugging (behind Kanemoto) and led the loop in home runs and errors (23). He homered in six straight games, tying Rick Lancellotti's club record. He made his second All-Star team and his first Best Nine (at first instead of third, as Makoto Imaoka was picked there). His brother Ryota was drafted that off-season.
...
Wikipedia