Sunday, January 7, 2018

Kazuhisa Makita of the San Diego Padres

Kazuhisa Makita, formerly of the Saitama Seibu Lions, has signed a two year deal with the San Diego Padres.  Makita was originally drafted by Seibu in the second round of the 2010 draft out of Nippon Express of the industrial leagues.  He stared 2011 in the Lions rotation but was named the team's closer by mid-season. He saved 22 games which helped him to win the Pacific League Rookie Of The Year award.  He moved back into the rotation for the next few seasons before moving into a middle relief role since 2015.  He made the All Star team four times in his seven seasons in NPB (2011, 2013, 2016-17) and played for Samurai Japan three times (2013 & 2017 World Baseball Classics and the 2015 Premier 12).

His BBM rookie cards are #013 from the 2011 Rookie Edition set and #050 from the 2011 1st Version set (although he also has cards in that year's 2nd Version and Lions team sets).  He's also in the 2011 BBM All Stars set.  He's been in every 1st and 2nd Version set since his rookie season.  His first official Calbee card isn't until 2012 (#090) although he appears on one of the 2011 checklist cards (#C-10).  He's also made appearances in Bandai, Konami, Front Runner and Epoch sets.  He doesn't appear in any of Topps's WBC sets but he has shown up in Calbee's Samurai Japan sets in 2016 and 17.  See his listing at TradingCardDB.com for a more comprehensive list.

2011 BBM Rookie Edition #013

2011 BBM 1st Version #050

2012 Calbee #T-03

2013 Front Runner Lions Rookies & Young Stars #16

2014 BBM Lions Classic - Impact Of Lions Blue #05

2015 Lions Fan Club #35

2016 Calbee Samurai Japan #SJ-15

2017 Epoch Lions #16
As you can see, all the card manufacturers like to focus on the fact that Makita's got a submarine-style delivery.

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