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 ...
Nippon Professional Baseball
or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''.
Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...
. He now serves the team as a batting practice pitcher.
The Chunichi Dragons drafted him in the first round of the 2014 draft.
Early career
Born in Shimizu in Shizuoka Prefecture, Nomura started playing baseball from his first year of elementary school with the Sakata Little Giants. In his third year of middle school, he played for Sakata Shimizu at the National rubber-ball Baseball Championships.
He attended Shimizu High School where in his third year he appeared in the 2011 Spring Senbatsu tournament. In the first game he conceded three earned runs as winning pitcher against Kyoto Seisho and would in the second game throw a complete game for 3 earned runs but would unfortunately be on the losing end against Nichidaisan High. In the Summer Koshien Shizuoka prefectural tournament in the same year, Nomura's team got to the quarter-finals before being bundled out by Tokoha Gakuen Kikukawa High School.
He chose not to go through the university leagues and was picked up by the Mitusbishi-Hitachi Power Systems Yokohama baseball team that plays in the industrial leagues where in his first year he took part in the
Intercity baseball tournament
The intercity baseball tournament (都市対抗野球大会 ''Toshi Taikō yakyū taikai'') of Japan, commonly known as "Summer All-star" (真夏の球宴 ''manatsu no kyūen''), is an annual nationwide inter-city baseball
Baseball i ...
. In his second year he started 9 games for a 7.71 ERA but, after improvements and adjustments to his throwing form, Nomura came back in his third year with a 2.11 ERA. He was subsequently selected to represent Japan at the 2014 21U Baseball World Cup.
At the 2014 NPB Draft held on 23 October 2014, Nomura was selected as the first draft pick for the Chunichi Dragons and was given a ¥100,000,000 signing on bonus plus ¥5,000,000 in incentives to go with a ¥15,000,000 yearly salary. In the draft, it was
Yasuaki Yamasaki
is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
Career
Yamasaki was drafted with the first pick by the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in 2014 Nippon Professional Baseball draft. He has ...
who received the most attention and was to be expected to be subjected to first choice picks from almost all teams but as Dragons GM
Hiromitsu Ochiai
Hiromitsu Ochiai (落合 博満 ''Ochiai Hiromitsu'', born December 9, 1953) is a Japanese professional baseball manager and former player. He is former manager of the Chunichi Dragons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. He is considered to b ...
rated Nomura very highly, his selection was recommended to player-manager
Motonobu Tanishige
Motonobu Tanishige (Japanese: 谷繁 元信, born December 21, 1970, in Hiroshima) is a retired Japanese professional baseball player and manager.
Tanishige played 27 seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), appearing in more games than any ...
and the decision was made.
Following Nomura's selection, Tanishige commented that "we have selected a player that can enter the starting rotation. He is a player with great control and stamina; someone we think is the most complete starting pitcher (available)."
He was given the number 20 formally worn by Chunichi aces
Shigeru Sugishita
Shigeru Sugishita (杉下 茂, born September 17, 1925) is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher and coach. Renowned for his forkball, Sugishita dominated the Central League from 1950–1955,Hiroshi Gondoh, Senichi Hoshino and
Tatsuo Komatsu
Tatsuo (written: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include:
*, Japanese actor
*, Japanese engineer
*Tatsuo Fukuda (福田達夫, born 1967), Japanese politician
*, Japanese swi ...
. The number was relieved by the departure of Kenichi Nakata in the 2013 off-season.
Following the draft, he took part in the IBAF 2014 21U Baseball World Cup pitching as a closer in 3 games without conceding but gave up 5 hits and 2 earned runs in the final against
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
.
Professional career
Chunichi Dragons
2015
On 25 June 2015, in a game against the
Tokyo Yakult Swallows
The Tokyo Yakult Swallows () are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Yom ...
at the
Nagoya Dome
The Nagoya Dome (ナゴヤドーム), known as Vantelin Dome Nagoya (バンテリンドーム ナゴヤ) for sponsoring reasons, is a baseball field, constructed in 1997, located in the city of Nagoya, Japan. The dome has the capacity to seat up ...
, Nomura made his debut relieving in the 9th inning. While he was able to take care of his first batter,
Naomichi Nishiura
is a professional Japanese baseball player. He plays infielder for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars
The are a professional baseball team in the Japan, Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The ...
, he would finish the game having walked 4 while giving up 3 earned runs.
He finished the season having made 3 appearances, pitching 2.2 innings for a 10.13 ERA.
In the Western League he made 14 appearances with a 1–2 record, pitching 34.1 innings with 23 strikeouts and a 3.41 ERA.
On 17 November, as Nomura failed to live up to expectation, his yearly salary was heavily slashed by senior management, reduced by ¥3,700,000 to ¥11,300,000.
2016
Nomura failed to make any appearances for the first team in 2016 and further had his salary slashed as a result from ¥11,300,000 to ¥8,480,000.
2017
Nomura once again failed to make an impact in 2017 and was cut from the team on October 4. Nomura later rejoined the club as a batting practice pitcher.
Pitching Style
In his third year in the industrial leagues, Nomura clocked a high of 149 km/h with his fastball. He can also throw a variety of
off-speed pitch
In baseball, an off-speed pitch is a pitch thrown at a slower speed than a fastball. Breaking balls and changeups are the two most common types of off-speed pitches. Very slow pitches which require the batter to provide most of the power on cont ...
es including a
curve
In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line (geometry), line, but that does not have to be Linearity, straight.
Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point (ge ...
, slider, forkball and cutter.
According to Dragons GM, Hiromitsu Ochiai, Nomura is "a pitcher that is everywhere" and was especially impressed on the third time he watched the player as the quality of his pitches never fell when he was seen as a closing pitcher.