Where Eagles Dare A Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles Fansite

Regular Season Report Card: #46 Teppei

Photo © www.rakuteneagles.jp

Here's the first of new series at Where Eagles Dare, the report card.  Next season there'll be previews & predictions for each player as well as All-Star break report cards.  Until then let's get started with the end of the regular season summaries.

* Since the regular season isn't quite over yet, I'll update these earlier posts after the entire season is over.

Leading off, centerfielder Teppei Tsuchiya, #46 in your program.

Just entering his prime at 27 years of age, Teppei is currently enjoying a career best season.  He leads the Pacific League in batting (.333) and is first in triples as well, with 12.  Despite his hot start he often was hitting 7th in the lineup.  After a brief stint on the disabled list, Teppei resumed his stellar play, eventually working his way up to 3rd in the lineup.  2009 will be his best year so far in BA, R, and RBI.

Photo © Yahoo! Japan

Strengths

Consistency - batting .331 with RISP.

Defense - strong positionally, regularly makes leaping catches at the outfield wall to rob the opposition.

Baserunning - easily leading the league in triples, he also has 24 doubles.

Weaknesses

Power - only 9 HRs on the season, which isn't usually enough for the 3 spot in the batting lineup.  With a little more pop in his swing he'd easily be approaching 20.

Basestealing - not blessed with blazing speed, he isn't much of a threat to steal with only 12.

Current Grade: B+

The only thing I wonder about when I watch Teppei play is, "Has he already reached his ceiling?"  Not that I'm complaining, if he can maintain this level of production for the next 5 years he'd become a major star in Japan.  I'm just not sure how much he can improve on his 2009 performance.  Teppei seems like an extremely serious and dedicated individual though, and I'm sure he's already working hard to fill any holes in his game.

Related posts:

1. Regular Season Report Card: #3 Linden
2. Regular Season Report Card: #20 Hasebe
3. Regular Season Report Card: #7 Yamasaki
4. 2009 Report Card: #5 Fernando Seguignol
5. Eagles @ Lions Postgame: Timely Teppei

About Andrew

Andrew has lived in Japan since 2006, spending time exploring the Tohoku region. He frequently attends Rakuten Eagles games in Sendai. You'll find him sitting along the 3rd base line drinking Guinness wearing a #46 Teppei jersey, next to a Japanese girl in a #5 Seguignol jersey.          You can follow him on Twitter if that makes you happy.