Tetsuya Matsumoto

Giants outfielder Tetsuya Matsumoto retired at the end of the season.  Matsumoto was taken by the Giants in the third round of the fall 2006 ikusei draft out of Senshu University.  He was moved to the 70 man roster during training camp in 2007 and debuted with the ichi-gun team in 2008.  He became a regular in 2009, hitting .293 in 129 games and not only won a Golden Glove but was named Rookie Of The Year.  He made the All Star team for the first and only time in 2010 but injuries limited him to only 94 games that year.  Injuries took their toll in 2011 also as he only played in 20 games with the top team.  His playing time with the ichi-gun squad recovered somewhat over the next three seasons, appearing in 83 games in 2012, 91 games in 2013 and 75 games in 2014 but he spent most of 2015 and 2016 and all of 2017 with the farm team.  I don't know if it was injuries or ineffectiveness that kept him at ni-gun.  He played in three Nippon Series - winning championships in 2009 and 2012 against the Fighters and losing in 2013 to the Eagles.

Because Matsumoto was taken in the ikusei draft in 2006, he does not appear in the 2007 BBM Rookie Edition set as the ikusei players weren't included in the Rookie Edition sets until 20092011 (I think).  His BBM rookie card was #728 from the 2007 2nd Version set - it's in the "Update" subset so the card says it's a 1st Version card - I think this is the only time the "Update" subset did't say "2nd Version" on the cards.  His first Calbee card was #260 from the 2009 set.

2007 BBM 2nd Version #728

2010 BBM 1st Version #435

2010 BBM All Stars #A28

2011 BBM Tohto 80th Anniversary #86

2012 BBM Nippon Series #S30

2014 Calbee #215

2017 BBM Giants #G62