Card Of The Week December 31

Two weeks ago I did a Card Of The Week post about Norio Ichimura, the oldest player ever taken in the NPB draft.  Scott Kaneko left a comment asking who was the youngest player to be drafted.  I was kind of annoyed at myself because it's an obvious question that hadn't occurred to me.  

Luckily I vaguely remembered that I had done a post about the guy some years back because he'd been signed to a contract by the Mets.  It took a little bit of searching but I found the post fairly quickly.  The player's name was Kento Tsujimoto and he was taken by the Hanshin Tigers at the age of 15 years and about ten and half months in the eighth round of the 2004 draft.

Tsujimoto was born and raised in Hyogo Prefecture and played baseball as a youth.  Apparently he felt his junior high school team's practice was too tough so his parents sent him to go to school in the US.  After completing the ninth grade at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, he returned to Japan, declared for the draft and was selected by Hanshin.

He only pitched in five games with the farm team in 2005, posting an ERA of 11.37.  He didn't pitch at all the following year while the team wanted him to build up his body and this paid off somewhat in 2007 when he had an ERA of 3.24 in nine games in the Western League.  That fall the Tigers send him to pitch for the Waikiki BeachBoys of the Hawaiian Winter League and he went 1-1 with an ERA of 5.30.  He got into 11 games with the Tigers ni-gun squad in 2008 and posted an ERA of 3.65.

The Tigers released him after the 2008 season and re-signed him to a development player (ikusei) contract for 2009.  A back injury kept him out of action all year, however, and the Tigers released him again at the end of the season.  His final numbers in three years on the Tigers farm team were 27 innings pitched in 25 appearances, an 0-1 record, giving up 33 hits and eight walks while striking out 15.  His ERA was 5.33.

After attending the 12 team tryout and getting no offers, he traveled to the US to train with Keiichi Yabu and successfully tried out for the independent Golden League.  He was the top pick for the Maui Na Koa Ikaika.  He changed to a side arm delivery and had his most successful season as a professional, working out of the bullpen and going 3-2 with two saves and a 2.88 ERA while striking out 48 in 34 1/3 innings over 32 appearances.  

He had a tryout with the Tampa Bay Rays in early 2011 that didn't pan out but he signed a minor league deal with the Mets shortly after that.  I don't think he ever actually pitched in the Mets farm system, however, as he hurt his arm shortly after signing with the team and had to undergo surgery.  The Mets released him in early 2013 and I don't think he ever played professionally after that.  His Japanese Wikipedia page says he became a translator.

As you might expect, Tsujimoto didn't have a whole lot of baseball cards.  He's in the 2005 BBM Rookie Edition (#63) and 1st Version (#404) sets but almost all his remaining cards are from BBM's Tigers team sets from 2005 to 2009.  Here's the cards I have from his days with the Tigers:

2005 BBM Rookie Edition #63

2005 BBM 1st Version #404

2006 BBM Tigers #041

He also appeared in BBM's Brilliant Teenagers set, the 2014 edition of their then-annual "Historic Collection" set - I got his Tigers farm team stats off of the back of this card:

2014 BBM Brilliant Teenagers #019

Finally I don't believe that there was a team set for Maui in 2010 but there was one for Waikiki in 2007 and "Kent" Tsujimoto appears in it.  Scott was kind enough to mail me his card after I had answered the question about who the youngest player to be drafted was.  He told me he was pretty sure I didn't have this particular Tsujimoto card and he was right:

Thanks for the card, Scott, and Happy New Year to all!