Suguru Iwazaki

Suguru Iwazaki (岩崎 優) is a Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball pitcher for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan's Central League.

Iwazaki is a 6-foot tall left-handed pitcher, and wears jersey No. 13.

His surname is often misread as "Iwasaki" rather than "Iwazaki".

Suguru is a native of Shimizu, Shizuoka.

During his younger years, his mother who was an active member of the local softball team, assigned him to assist in picking up balls during her teams' practices.

This eventually led to his interest in baseball.

He joined the school's softball team when he entered Shimizu Municipal Junior High School.

Even though he entered Shimizu Higashi High School which is a school known for producing notable football players, he still declared his wish to join its baseball team.

He entered Kokushi University and participated in the Tohto University Baseball League, mostly as a relief pitcher up to his second year.

This was the first time in 31 years that a Hanshin rookie battery won an official game since rookies Susumu Mikoshiba and Katsuhiko Kido did so in 1983.

After a bad outing with Hiroshima, he was removed from the register on July 26 and spent about a month in the farms.

He returned on September 4, and recorded his first home victory at Koshien against the Baystars.

He again won on his next outing against the Swallows at Meiji Jingu Stadium.

He finished the season with 5 wins and 4 losses, with an ERA of 3.50.

With this, he became the first Hanshin rookie drafted as 6th pick to record 5 wins in his first year and season.

He recorded an overall ERA of 0.94 during his 3rd year, the League's second best.

For his senior's thesis, he broke down the advantages and disadvantages of left and right-handed pitchers.

He joined Masahide Higasa (Chunichi, 7th-round draft pick in 1995) as the only pitchers drafted in the sixth round or later to record a victory in their first outing on their first year.

Hanshin commemorated this feat by producing 99 serialized photo panels of Iwazaki that went on sale from April 8 for 16,200 yen (Hanshin rookie goods normally sell below 10,000 yen).

He formed a battery with fellow rookie Ryutaro Umeno on May 7, the first time since both rookies Yuya Ando and Ryo Asai started an official game in 2002.

But he earned his first loss that day when he gave up 6 runs, and the Tigers lost 0–7 to the Dragons.

He went for five more starts without securing a win until July 5, where he pitched 131 throws with Umeno in 7 shutout innings against the Baystars.

He was given the 100th panel with serial number 67 – his jersey number.

He won another game against the Dragons on April 24.

Despite his coach's recommendations for him to play in the industrial leagues after graduation, he still opted to join the 2013 NPB draft.

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Iwazaki was the Hanshin Tigers' sixth pick during the 2013 autumn draft.

The Tigers originally intended to pick only five players during the draft, but upon the advice of Takayoshi Nakao, a scout for the Tigers who has been following Iwazaki since his junior year in Kokushi, they added him to their roster.

2014

He started the March 9 exhibition game with the Yomiuri Giants at Koshien.

He pitched in ni-gun (farm) games afterwards.

During the March 23 Western League game with the Orix Buffaloes, he pitched 6 scoreless innings, giving up only 1 hit, and earned his first victory.

He debuted as the starting pitcher on the April 2 Dragons match, where he pitched 5 scoreless innings, allowing 3 hits and a walk, while striking out three batters.

The Tigers scored 15-0 that day, giving him his first win on his first official match as a starter, the 8th rookie to do so in franchise history.

On November 21, he was given a raise of 8.4 million yen for an annual salary of 15 million yen for the 2015 season.

2015

He started the season as part of the starting rotation, but after a few rocky starts and failing to record a win in 7 games, he was sent back to the farm to improve his pitch control.

He continued to appear in the Western League games, and on July 12, he earned a complete victory against Orix when only gave up 1 run in 9 innings.

He was called back to the main squad and took the mound on August 9 against the Baystars to record his first win of the season.

He won his next two starts, and had more quality starts in September but failed to record the win due to lack of early run support.