It was draft day for NPB today. Officially it's the 2017 draft but since I started mislabelling the draft some years back based on what's on the back of BBM's baseball cards I'm going to call it the 2018 draft. As usual
Deanna pulled an all nighter to
live blog the draft and
Gen has
the round by round lists up as well.
I was kind of surprised to still be doing these posts since it's been four years now since BBM last did a set for the Tokyo Big Six league. But there was actually someone drafted out of the industrial leagues who appeared in one of those sets. There's also the virtual cards from the
Tokyo Rocks app - all five players who were drafted out of the Tokyo Big Six league today had cards in both last year's and this year's "sets" (this year's set is actually split between spring and fall versions - they issued another 66 cards in early September. I only have cards for two of the drafted players from the fall set).
One thing I did not check was if any of the former Tokyo Big Six players taken out of the industrial leagues had cards in Tokyo Rocks 2016 set.
Masaki Iwami, Keio (Eagles #2)
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| 2016 Tokyo Rocks |
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| 2017 Spring Tokyo Rocks |
Takahiro Kumagai, Rikkio (Tigers #3)
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| 2016 Tokyo Rocks |
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| 2017 Spring Tokyo Rocks |
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| 2017 Fall Tokyo Rocks |
Kohei Miyadai, Tokyo (Fighters #7)
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| 2016 Tokyo Rocks |
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| 2017 Spring Tokyo Rocks |
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| 2017 Fall Tokyo Rocks |
Kotaro Otake, Waseda (Hawks #4)
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| 2016 Tokyo Rocks |
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| 2017 Spring Tokyo Rocks |
Hiromasa Saitoh, Meji (Lions #1)
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| 2016 Tokyo Rocks |
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| 2017 Spring Tokyo Rocks |
Shunsuke Saitoh, Rikkio by way of JX-ENEOS (Baystars #4)
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| 2013 BBM Tokyo Big Six #28 |
I'm not positive about this but I believe that Miyadai was the first player drafted from Tokyo University since Takahiro Matsuka was taken by the Baystars in the ninth round of the 2004 draft.
2 comments:
Man, I don't even have all of the Tokyo Rocks cards because I kept switching phones and things like that.
There have been 6 pro players ever from Tokyo University (5 drafted; 4 actually made ichi-gun appearances). An article here when Miyadai submitted his draft eligibility letter summed it up nicely: https://www.nikkansports.com/baseball/news/201710050000511.html
1. Shinji Niihari, RHP, joined Taiyo as a salaryman in 1965 and then convinced the owner to let him play for the Whales (long story), but it was in the last year of pro ball before the draft, so he wasn't actually drafted. Played from 1965-68 and appeared in 88 games, was 9-6 with a 3.29 ERA. Died in 2004.
2. Takashi Ide, drafted as RHP by Chunichi in 1966, converted to OF in 1970, had a semi-respectable career as a backup outfielder until 1976 (appeared in 359 games, batted .188/.224/.250 but did once hit a homer!), had an even longer career as a coach and manager for Chunichi afterwards and worked in the front office a little too.
3. Itaru Kobayashi, Lotte's 8th and final pick in the 1992 draft, LHP. Rumor has it Lotte only drafted him as a hope of getting him into their front office, and he never appeared in an ichi-gun game ever. Retired after 2 years, went off and got his MBA from Columbia, and has had a long and illustrious career in baseball business, including a long stint in the Softbank Hawks front office (irony, anyone?).
4. Ryohei Endoh, drafted as LHP by the Fighters in 1999, the 7th and final pick. Retired after 2 years, did get to make one appearance at ichi-gun in a retirement game, and then went into the Fighters front office, and he's still there (did you get to meet him in Arizona too? I forget), he's been an assistant to the GM type of role for a while.
5. Takahiro Matsuka, RHP, 9th and final pick by the Baystars in 2004. He appeared at ichi-gun in 9 games for Yokohama and 5 for the Fighters but never got a win at that level. You probably know some of his story; after NPB he tried to play in an indie league in the US, but it didn't really work out, then he went back to Japan, got a teaching license, and is teaching social studies/history/whatever at a high school in Kagawa and coaching their baseball team.
6. Kohei Miyadai, LHP, 7th and final pick by the Fighters in 2017! I wonder where his story will go?
Cool. All five of those guys were in the 2011 Legend Of Tokyo Big Six set along with Takeo Azuma and Kensuke Ohkoshi. I may need to do a post on them. I have other cards of all of them except Niihara.
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