Hiroyuki Nakajima

Hiroyuki Nakajima (中島 裕之), nicknamed "Nakaji", is a Japanese professional baseball infielder for the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

He previously played for the Saitama Seibu Lions, Orix Buffaloes and Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and the Oakland Athletics organization.

He was the 57th overall pick (out of 86 players) in that year's draft.

However, despite such relative anonymity, Nakajima was picked by the Seibu Lions in the fifth round of the 2000 NPB amateur draft.

Nakajima struggled mightily in his rookie season (2001).

He recorded seven errors at shortstop, a position he rarely played in high school, and hit just .105 (2-for-19) in 30 games with the Lions' nigun team (Japanese for "minor league" or "farm team").

He made substantial improvements in his second season (2002), winning the starting shortstop job at the nigun level and becoming the only player in the league to play all 90 games.

He led the Eastern League in hits, runs scored, sacrifice flies and hit-batters and came second in batting average (.299) and fourth in runs batted in (47), hitting 11 home runs to top it off.

However, he also grounded into 10 double plays and committed 25 errors, leading the league in both categories.

He was called up to the ichigun ("major league") team for the first time towards the end of the season, making his professional debut at the level in a game against the Nippon-Ham Fighters on October 6 as the designated hitter and getting his first career hit off right-hander Satoru Kanemura in the same game.

Nakajima hit a team-high .306 with 13 home runs for the Lions' nigun team in.

He played 44 games at the ichigun level, hitting his first career home run off then-Fukuoka Daiei Hawks Hayato Terahara on August 5 and recording his first career stolen base on August 12 against the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes.

He finished the year with a .258 batting average, four homers and 11 RBI, and was given the uniform number 3 during the off-season as a testament to the organization's hopes that he would become the successor to former shortstop and franchise player Kazuo Matsui, who left for the New York Mets via free agency.

The season proved to be a breakout year for Nakajima, earning a spot in the starting lineup as the No. 7 hitter for the ichigun team's season opener.

Manager Tsutomu Ito continued to start him despite criticism that he wasn't ready to be the starting shortstop, and Nakajima lived up to expectations by hitting over .300 until May and finishing the year with a .287 batting average, 27 home runs, 90 RBI and 18 stolen bases, contributing to the Lions' league title and Japan Series championship.

Nakajima was the only player in the Pacific League to play all 133 games without missing an inning.

He was also voted to the Pacific League All-Star team by the managers and coaches.

On May 7, in an interleague game against the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, Nakajima took a grounder that took a bad hop to the face, breaking his cheekbone and missing a significant amount of playing time.

While he still finished the season with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, he hit just .274 with 11 home runs and 11 stolen bases, grounding into 17 double plays (third in the Pacific League) and committing 10 errors (more than any other shortstop in the league).

Rebounding from a disappointing 2005 campaign, Nakajima led all players with a .390 batting average in interleague play in and was chosen to the All-Star team for the second time in his career.

However, he was hit by a pitch by Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles right-hander Hiroki Yamamura on July 30, breaking the fourth metacarpal bone in his left hand.

After returning to the team on September 12, Nakajima hit well, even ranking among the league leaders in batting average for a short span of time (he finished the season with a .306 average, fourth-highest in the league).

However, he left much to be desired with his glovework, leading all Pacific League shortstops in errors (16) for the second straight year.

Nakajima was promoted to the 3-hole in the batting lineup for the, playing in his third All-Star Game and finishing among the league leaders in average (.300, fifth in the Pacific League) and hits (160, third) with 74 RBI.

He was also the only player in either of the leagues to record an RBI in nine straight games.

On the other hand, his 134 strikeouts were more than those in his previous two seasons combined (67 and 66 in 2005 and 2006, respectively) and his 20 errors led all Pacific League shortstops for the third consecutive season.

Nakajima played for the Japanese national team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

The season brought Nakajima his first stint with the Japanese national team as he was chosen to play in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

He hit .343 and led the league in batting average in the first half of the season, playing in the All-Star Game for the fourth time of his career (though he was relegated to third base due to the selections of shortstops Munenori Kawasaki of the Hawks and Tsuyoshi Nishioka of the Chiba Lotte Marines and committed an error on a bad throw) and even seeing time as the team's cleanup hitter when teammates and resident power hitters Craig Brazell and G.G. Sato were slumping.

While his batting average dipped after returning to Japan following the Olympics, Nakajima hit .331 for the season, finishing second to Eagles outfielder Rick Short, who won the batting title by a mere .0007 points.

After the 2011 season, the Lions posted Nakajima to Major League Baseball, but Nakajima failed to reach an agreement with the New York Yankees.

After the 2012 season, he signed a two-year contract with the Athletics.

After spending two years in Minor League Baseball, Nakajima returned to Japan with Buffaloes in 2015.

He played for them through 2018, before joining the Giants.

Nakajima was born in Itami, a city in Hyōgo, Japan.

He was a pitcher during his days at Itami Municipal Sakuradai Elementary School, playing in a national tournament alongside batterymate Katsuki Yamazaki (who would become a catcher for the rival Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks a decade later).

He played for Takarazuka Senior while attending Itami Municipal Tennōjigawa Junior High School, receiving offers to play for high school baseball powerhouses in other prefectures by coaches who came to see him play.

Nakajima opted to apply to the prestigious Hōtoku Gakuen High School within the prefecture but was rejected and ended up enrolling in Itami Kita Senior High School, a local school and a complete unknown in high school baseball.

He worked his way into the starting lineup in his first year (the equivalent of tenth grade in the United States), playing right field that summer and becoming the team's leadoff hitter by his second.

Nakajima hit 43 home runs out of the leadoff spot in his high school career and took the mound as the team's ace pitcher in his last two years, but his team never came particularly close to making a national tournament, losing in the fourth round of the Hyōgo Tournament in the last summer of Nakajima's high school career.