Yoshinori Tateyama

Who is Yoshinori Tateyama?

Yoshinori Tateyama is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent.

A sidearm pitcher, Tateyama relies chiefly on a sinking fastball that averages 87–88 mph and a curveball in the low 70s. He also features two other off-speed pitches, a changeup and a screwball, that are used mostly against lefties. The screwball is thrown with a "Vulcan" grip. He is one of only two relief pitchers to have thrown even a single screwball in the 2012 MLB season.

While his strikeout totals were average, he got hitters out with his control.

On November 30, 2010 Tateyama signed as a free agent with the Texas Rangers. After starting 2011 in the minor leagues, he was called up to the Rangers on May 23, 2011 and made his major league debut on May 24, 2011.

Koji Uehara was his teammate in high school. In that time, Tateyama was an ace pitcher and Uehara was an outfielder. In the 2011–2012 offseason, the Rangers signed Japan's best starting pitcher Yu Darvish to a 5-year deal. Tateyama and Darvish were previously teammates for 5 seasons on the Nippon-Ham Fighters.

He became a free agent on October 30, 2012 when the Rangers declined his 2013 option. He was resigned by Texas on December 20, 2012. He was then released in March 2013.