2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball 2007 Japanese Collegiate All Stars Set - Where Are They Now?

When I did the retirement post for Sho Aranami the other day I got thinking that I should do a "Where Are They Now?" post for the 2007 Japanese Collegiate All Star cards included in the 2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball set (that included Aranami).  Then when Fuji left a comment on the post asking about the guys in the set, I figured I'd go ahead and do the post.

In 2008 Upper Deck issued a box set called "USA Baseball".  The 60 card base set featured the collegiate and "junior" USA National teams for 2007.  Each box contained a number of autograph and/or memorabilia cards organized in various sets.  The Japanese Collegiate All Star team that had played the collegiate Team USA in the annual US-Japan University Baseball Championship in 2007 (well, annual up until that year anyway - it's mostly moved to an "every other year" schedule since then) was featured on six of these sets.  The most common of these were jersey cards for all 22 members of the team.  These were not serially numbered.  There were also 22 autograph cards (serially numbered to 50), 22 jersey patch cards (numbered to 20), 22 jersey letter cards (numbered to 15) and 21 flag patch cards (1 of 1) (for some reason there is no flag patch card for Shota Ohno).  There are also cards (numbered to 5) featuring autographs of the MVP of both the USA and Japanese teams - Pedro Alvarez and Shinya Muramatsu.

Of the 22 Japanese players in the set, 18 of them have gone on to play in NPB.  Seven of them were still active in NPB in 2019 although one of those (Takahiro Iwamoto) apparently retired at the end of the season.  10 of the players on the team were also on the 2008 Japanese Collegiate All Star team and were included in BBM's set for that team.  Eight of the players in the set were first round draft picks.  Three players played in the industrial leagues after graduating and before being drafted into NPB (actually if you include the four who didn't play in NPB there were seven players who played in the industrial leagues after graduation). 

Three of the players (Takashi Ogino, Shota Ohno and Yuki Saitoh) made an All Star team at least once (although Saitoh's was purely due to his popularity, not his pitching).  One of the players (Ryo Sakakibara) was the Pacific League Rookie Of The Year in 2010. 

Here's a summary of the players who went to NPB:

Player	College	Year	Drafted	Notes
Sho Aranami	Tokai	4	2010 Baystars 3rd	Played for Toyota after graduation.  Baystars 2011-18.  Golden Glove Award 2012-13. Played for Monterrey Sultans in 2019
Takeshi Hosoyamada	Waseda	3	2008 Baystars 4th	Played for Baystars 2009-13, Hawks 2014-15.  Was released by DeNA after 2013 and joined Hawks as ikusei player.  Made the Hawks' 70 man roster at the beginning of the 2015 season.  Played for Toyota after leaving Hawks
Takahiro Iwamoto	Asia	3	2008 Carp 1st	Played for Carp 2009-2019
Tomoyuki Kaida	Komazawa	2	2011 Buffaloes 4th	Played for Nippon Life after graduation.  Buffaloes 2012-present
Mikinori Katoh	Keio	4	2007 Swallows 1st	Played for Swallows 2008-12
Tetsuya Kokubo	Aoyama Gakuin	4	2007 Carp 3rd	Played for Carp 2008-present
Keijiro Matsumoto	Waseda	3	2008 Baystars 1st	Played for Baystars 2009-17.  Joined Nippon Steel Sumikin Kazusa Magic in 2018
Ryoji Nakata	Asia	2	2009 Dragons 3rd	Played for Dragons 2010-14.  Also played for JR Tokai after Chunichi released him
Hiroki Nakazawa	Kokusai Budo	4	2008 Giants 4th	Played for Giants 2009-12.  Traded to Eagles for Suguru Ino in 2012-13 offseason.  Played for Eagles 2013-14.  Made only ichi-gun appearances in 2013
Tomohisa Nemoto	Yokohama Shoka	4	2007 Marines 3rd	Played for Marines 2008-10.  Traded to Fighters for Takayuki Takaguchi and Kazunori Yamamoto in 2010-11 offseason.  Played for Fighters 2011-14
Takashi Ogino	Kansai Gakuin	4	2009 Marines 1st	Played for Toyota after graduation.  Marines 2010-present. All Star 2019
Shota Ohba	Toyo	4	2007 Hawks 1st	Played for Hawks 2008-15.  Sold to Dragons after 2015 season.  Played for Dragons 2016
Shota Ohno	Toyo	3	2008 Fighters 1st	Played for Fighters 2009-17.  Joined Dragons as free agent after 2017.  Dragons 2018-present.  Member of Samurai Japan for the 2017 WBC. All Star in 2014
Yuki Saitoh	Waseda	1	2010 Fighters 1st	Played for Fighters 2011-present.  All Star in 2011-12
Ryo Sakakibara	Kansai Kokuin	3	2008 Fighters 2nd	Played for Mitsubishi Motors Okazaki in the industrial leagues between high school and college.  Played for Fighters 2009-13.  Pacific League Rookie Of The Year in 2010.  Released by the Fighters and signed with Orix as an ikusei player for 2014.  Made the 70 man roster mid-2014.  Released after 2015.  Played for Omori Oil after leaving Orix
Shingo Tatsumi	Kinki	3	2008 Hawks 1st	Played for Hawks 2009-16.  Pitching coach for the Tochigi Golden Braves of the indy Baseball Challenge League in 2019
Hiroki Uemoto	Waseda	3	2008 Tigers 3rd	Played for Tigers 2009-present
Noriharu Yamazaki	Yokohama Shoka	3	2008 Baystars 3rd	Played for Baystars 2009-17.  Tigers 2018-present

Here's the jersey card for each of these players along with a card from their time in NPB.  I've tried to use the latest card I have of each player although I've picked a different card for some players because I've already used their latest card in other Where Are They Now? posts.  I've also sometimes picked a different card just to not show multiple cards from the same set.

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-1

2018 BBM Baystars #DB60

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-2

2010 BBM 1st Version #196

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-3

2019 BBM Carp #C61

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-4

2019 BBM Buffaloes #B22

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-5

2008 Calbee #141

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-6

2019 BBM 2nd Version #490

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-7

2015 BBM Baystars #DB64

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-10

2011 Bandai Owners League OL01 #110

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-11

2009 BBM Rookie Edition #056

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-12

2013 BBM Fighters #F17

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-14

2019 BBM 1st Version #126

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-13

2016 BBM Dragons #D31

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-15

2017 Calbee Samurai Japan #SJ-21

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-16

2019 Epoch NPB #074

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-17

2016 BBM Farewell #35

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-19

2016 BBM Hawks #H11

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-20

2018 BBM Tigers #T44

2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball National Teams Box Set #JN-22

2019 BBM Tigers #T51

Of the remaining four players in the set, only one of them - Shota Waizumi - had any other baseball cards.  He appeared in four of BBM's Tokyo Big Six sets in 2008 and 2009.

In his comment the other day, Fuji had basically asked the question of who the best players in the set were (ok, actually he asked if anyone in the set was "having a hall of fame career" or at least of "hall of very good career").  I don't think anyone from this group is going to the Hall Of Fame, at least not as a player.  The player with the best career is probably Takashi Ogino followed by Shota Ohno and Hiroki Uemoto but I'd be interested in hearing what people who know more about Japanese baseball than me think.