Shohei Tateyama

Shohei Tateyama of the Swallows announced his retirement back in mid-September.  Tateyama was a star pitcher for Yakult for about five seasons in the late 00's and early teens but suffered from an inability to stay healthy.

He was a third round pick of Yakult out of Nihon University in 2002.  He got into 10 games with the top team in 2003, starting nine of them but an elbow injury and subsequent Tommy John surgery kept him from playing at all in 2004.  He returned to the top team in 2005, making 25 starts and going 10-6 but he needed another elbow surgery after the season ended.  The Swallows used him out of the bullpen for much of the next two seasons but he moved back into the rotation to stay 2008 and blossomed in the role.  He went 12-3 with a 2.99 ERA in 2008; 16-6 with a 3.39 ERA in 2009; 12-7 with a 2.93 ERA in 2010; 11-5, 2.04 in 2011 and 12-8, 2.25 in 2012.  But he hurt his elbow again after two starts in 2013 and had another Tommy John surgery which cost him the rest of the season.  He suffered yet another elbow injury during training camp in 2014 which required yet another Tommy John surgery (his third). 

He returned to the Swallows rotation in mid-2015, going 6-3 with 2.89 ERA down the stretch as the Swallows made a somewhat surprising (and ultimately successful) run for the Central League pennant.  He ended up starting and losing Game Four of the Nippon Series against the Hawks that year.  He's been limited to only 19 starts with the top team over the past four seasons (including his retirement game this season) and I'm not sure if it's been injury or ineffectiveness (or both) that's responsible for that.  He'll be the farm team pitching coach for the Eagles starting next season.

He made the All Star team four times (2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012) and led the Central League in victories in 2009.  He won the Comeback Player Of The Year Award in 2015.

Tateyama is another of the rare Japanese players who had a pre-rookie card.  He was on the 2001 Baseball World Cup team while he was still in college and was featured in the 2002 BBM Japan National Team set.  His first BBM cards were in the Rookie Edition and 1st Version sets in 2003.  His first Calbee card wasn't until #203 in 2005.

As always here's a bunch of cards from his career:

2002 BBM Japan National Team #10

2003 BBM Rookie Edition #9

2003 BBM 1st Version #54

2005 BBM Swallows #S31

2008 BBM All Stars #A14

2010 BBM 1st Version #452

2011 BBM Tohto 80th Memorial #69

2012 Swallows Team Set #YsK05

2015 Epoch Swallows Victory Memorial #07

2017 Calbee #135

2019 BBM Swallows #S13