Kazuo Matsui

Last Tuesday Kazuo Matsui of the Eagles got his 2000th hit in NPB.  This isn't quite as big of a milestone as it would have been as Matsui had already made the Meikyukai back in 2009 when his combined NPB and MLB hit total reached 2000.  He does become only the fourth player to have 2000 hits in NPB plus at least one hit in MLB (behind Hideki Matsui, Norihiro Nakamura and Alex Ramirez).

I thought I'd take this opportunity to do a retrospective on Matsui.  Little Matsui was taken in the third round of the fall 1993 draft by the Lions (behind Takashi Ishii and Jun Yamada).  He made his debut at the ichi-gun level in 1995 and was a starter by 1996.  He lead the PL in steals each year from 1997-99 before adding power to his game in 2000, reaching the 20 home run plateau for the first time.  He hit 24, 36 and 33 home runs in his last three seasons with the Lions before heading to MLB and the Mets for the 2004 season.  He played in North America from 2004 through 2010 for the Mets, Rockies and Astros and was generally viewed as a disappointment as he never approached the kind of numbers he had put up in Japan.  He returned to Japan in 2011 and joined the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.  He's never repeated the power number he put up in his last four season with the Lions but he's been a steady player for the Eagles in the five seasons he's been in Sendai.

Here's a sampling of his cards:

1994 BBM #506

1996 Takara Lions #32

1999 Calbee #112

2000 Power League #S006

2001 BBM Preview "Century Best 9" #CB6

2003 BBM Japan National Team #18

2004 BBM 1st Version "Best 9" #BN6

2011 BBM 1st Version #154

2012 BBM Eagles "Go Ahead! Together" #EG6

2013 Calbee #056

2015 BBM Eagles #E60