is a professional Japanese
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
player. He plays
pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
for the
Chunichi Dragons
The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) ...
.
Early life
As a student of Aichi Prefectural Konan High School, as he was only 150cm tall he gave up playing baseball to play as a
libero for the school's
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...
team.
However, while at high school, Matsuda grew to 175cm and he looked to return to baseball at university.
In 2016, Matsuda passed the exam to enter the Economics Department of
Nagoya University where he joined the baseball club.
On 17 October 2019, Matsuda was selected as the 1st draft pick in the development player round for the
Chunichi Dragons
The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in 2011) ...
at the
2019 NPB Draft and on 11 November signed a development player contract with a ¥2,000,000 moving allowance and a ¥3,000,000 yearly salary.
Pitching style
Matsuda's fastball tops out at 148 km/h which he pairs with a cutter, slider, curveball, change-up and two-seam fastball.
Personal
At University, his black rimmed glasses were his trademark but as he was selected by the Dragons, he upgraded to blue frames.
He has said he aspires to be like
Masahiro Yamamoto.
References
External links
NPB.jp
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matsuda, Hiroaki
1997 births
Living people
Baseball people from Aichi Prefecture
People from Iwakura, Aichi
Japanese baseball players
Nagoya University alumni
Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers
Chunichi Dragons players