Yuhei

Back to the retirement posts finally...

Yuhei Takai of the Swallows announced his retirement a few months back.  Back in the early 00's Takai had been the top pitcher at Tohoku High School and drew interest from NPB as well as MLB teams when he graduated.  He was taken in the first round of the 2002 draft by both the Swallows and Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes with Yakult winning the lottery drawing for his rights.

The Swallows put him into the starting rotation in 2003 and he had mixed success, going 5-6 with an ERA of 5.03.  His 12 wild pitches, however, led the Central League.  Yakult continued to use him as a starter the next two seasons and his mixed results continued - his ERAs came down a little but he still had issues with wild pitches.  They moved him into the bullpen in 2006 but his ERA climbed to 6.51 and he managed to throw three wild pitches in one inning.  He spent another four seasons on the mound but never really achieved much success.  Finally after the 2009 season, the team suggested that he switch to the outfield.

He spent the 2010 and 2011 seasons with the farm team, learning how to be a position player.  Despite never having hit particularly well as a pitcher, he hit pretty well after transitioning to the outfield.  He batted .283 in 2010 and .330 in 2011.  As part of his switch to being a batter, he changed his registered name in 2011 from "Yuhei Takai" to just "Yuhei".

He split 2012 between the ichi- and ni-gun squads but then missed most of the 2013 season with a knee injury.  He came back in 2014 to post his best season, hitting .316 with 23 home runs and 90 RBIs.  He made the All Star team for the first time and was named to the Best 9 team.  He made the All Star team again in 2015 but his numbers fell to .270 with only 8 home runs.  Injuries again limited his playing time in 2016 and 2017 but he was back as a regular in 2018 and 2019.  He split 2020 between the top and farm teams and spent almost all of 2021 on the farm - his only ichi-gun appearance was his retirement game on November 1st.  He'll be a hitting coach for the Eagles this coming season.

Takai's first BBM cards are from the 2003 BBM Rookie Edition (#8) and 1st Version (#53) sets.  His first Calbee card is #94 in the 2003 Series Two set.  Here's a sampling of his cards:

2003 BBM Rookie Edition #8

2003 BBM 1st Version #53

2005 BBM Swallows #S85

2009 BBM Swallows #S21

2013 BBM 1st Version #072

2015 Epoch Swallows Victory Memorial #28

2017 BBM Fusion #022

2019 BBM 2nd Version #516

2021 Epoch NPB #424