Sunday, November 1, 2009

2010 NPB Draft

The 2010 NPB draft was held last week and it got a little more attention than normal due to one guy who was considering skipping NBP and heading straight to the majors. For the record - there currently are NO Yusei Kikuchi cards - if you see one on eBay, it's an "unlicensed collector's issue" (fake). Kikuchi's first card will most likely be with the BBM's Rookie Edition that will come out next February.

Several of the players drafted do already have cards from their college years. Here's the list (all card sets are from BBM)

Takahiro Araki, Kinki (Swallows #3)


2008 Collegiate National Team #CN18, #CN40 (shown)

Kazuhito Futagami, Hosei (Tigers, #1)


2008 Tokyo Big Six Spring Version #31 (shown)
2009 Tokyo Big Six Spring Version #30

Kenta Matsushita, Waseda (Lions #5)


2009 Tokyo Big Six Spring Version #04 (shown)

Ryoji Nakata, Asia (Dragons #3)


2008 Collegiate National Team #CN14 (shown), #CN36

Hisashi Takeuchi, Hosei (Carp #3)


2008 Collegiate National Team #CN03, #CN25
2008 Tokyo Big Six Autumn Version #26 (shown)
2009 Tokyo Big Six Spring Version #29

Kenji Tomura, Rikkio (Eagles #1)


2008 Tokyo Big Six Spring Version #39
2009 Tokyo Big Six Spring Version #38 (shown)
2009 Tokyo Big Six Autumn Version #25


(NOTE: I haven't gotten my 2009 Tokyo Big Six Autumn Version set yet. I suspect that the Futagami, Matsushita, Takeuchi and Tomura are in the set, but I don't know for sure.)
Deanna Rubin reports that Tomura is the only one of the drafted Tokyo Big Six players to appear in the 2009 Autumn Version set.

As usual, Deanna Rubin has all the information that you'd ever want to know about the draft and has a photo-post up already about the players that she's seen who were drafted by the Central League teams.

4 comments:

Deanna said...

I have the Fall 2009 Big 6 set! Only Tomura is in the set actually -- remember it's only 5 players from each team, and it seems to be trying to cover guys who didn't have a card in the spring. And this set features a lot of hotshot freshmen -- Hosei's Kazuki Mishima, Meiji's Takashi Uemoto (Hiroki's little brother), Waseda's Shota Sugiyama. Hiroshi Taki is a special Best 9 insert (but I got Shingo Kamegai... I'm not complaining.)

Still can't believe Tomura got taken as a #1 pick! That's so crazy!

NPB Card Guy said...

Thanks for the info Deanna! I've updated the list.

Is it odd that there were only four Tokyo Big Six players drafted? I guess last year there were only five, so maybe not...

Deanna said...

Not really odd at all. This is going to sound mean, but Tokyo Big 6 is not actually the top league in the country in terms of competitive level. It IS the oldest and most popular though. Think kind of like the Ivy League in the US.

And actually a few former Big 6 guys got drafted this time around. Ohtani from Waseda (now Toyota) comes to mind.

Next year could be a pretty big draft for the Big 6 actually -- there are a LOT of great 3rd-years this year...

NPB Card Guy said...

Hmm, didn't think to check for former Tokyo Big Six players who didn't get drafted last year...