Chang-Yong Lim of the Chicago Cubs

Time to get caught up on the signings of the last month...

Former Tokyo Yakult Swallow reliever Chang-Yong Lim has signed a two year deal with the Chicago Cubs.  Lim will actually spend the 2013 season rehabbing after elbow surgery last July and is not expected to pitch for the Cubs until 2014.

Lim, of course, is Korean and pitched in the KBO before coming to the Swallows after 2007.  He made his debut with the Haitai Tigers in 1995.  He was traded to the Samsung Lions in the 1998-99 offseason and remained with them until he came to Japan after the 2007 season.  He joined the Swallows for 2008 and has spent the last five seasons with them.

I initially thought that there were no cards of Lim from his time in Korea but it turns out that there are.  For some reason, he's identified in the Teleca cards from 1999 and 2000 as "Im Chang Yong" rather than "Lim Chang Yong" (Unless there's an amazing coincidence that there were two guys on the Samsung Lions in 1999 and 2000 that had almost identical names and were both born on June 4, 1976).  Here are the Teleca cards I have of him:

1999 Teleca #69

1999 Teleca Premium #53

2000 Teleca Korea/Japan Super Games insert #KJ28

He also has a "Super Team" insert card from the 1999 Teleca Premium set and a regular card in the 2000 Teleca set.  In addition, he appears in the 2010 KBO game set in the subset of Korean players in Japan.  There may well be other cards but these are all that I'm aware of.

His initial card in Japan was #182 from the 2008 BBM 1st Version set.  He mostly appeared in the "flagship" BBM sets and Swallows team sets, along with the Konami and Bandai game card issues.  I don't think he had a Calbee card until 2010.  He made the All Star team three times (2009-11) so he appears in the respective BBM All Star sets.

2008 BBM 1st Version #182

2009 BBM 1st Version "2008 Record Making Players" #475

2010 Konami Baseball Heroes Winner Opening Version Black #B10RB042

2011 BBM All Stars #A47

2012 Calbee #119

Lim was a member of the 2009 Korean WBC team who were the runners up in the tournament (Lim actually took the loss in the title game), but he does not appear in any of Topps' various WBC sets.  He does appear in Konami's WBC sets, however.