Chihiro Kaneko

I had to hold off on some of the retirement posts I wanted to do until I had the 2022 BBM team sets since a number of the players only appeared in them (or at least they were the only sets I was getting that they appeared in).  So even though the 2023 season has begun, I'm still finishing up last year.  (Although to be fair, one of the players I'll be doing didn't announce he was retiring until last week.)

First up is Orix and Nippon-Ham pitcher Chihiro Kaneko.  Kaneko spent a couple years playing for Toyota in the corporate leagues after graduating from high school in Nagano.  He was the top pick in the 2004 draft by the newly renamed Orix Buffaloes - technically he was selected in the "free acquisition frame" which essentially allowed him and Orix to come to an agreement without the possibility of other teams drafting him.  He made his debut with the top team in 2006, getting into 21 games mostly out of the bullpen.  He moved into the starting rotation in 2007 and stayed there for most of his time with Orix (with the exception of the last month of the season in 2009 when he was the team's closer).  He posted double digit wins in six of the seven years between 2008 and 2014, missing only in 2012 when injuries limited him to just nine games).

He put together a great season in 2013, going 15-8 with an ERA of 2.01 and 200 strikeouts.  The only problem was that nobody noticed since that was the year that Masahiro Tanaka went 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA (but only 183 strikeouts).   So Kaneko essentially did it again in 2014, going 16-5 with a 1.98 ERA and 199 strikeouts.  With Tanaka gone to MLB and Orix ending the season in a virtual tie with Softbank (although the Hawks won the Pacific League pennant by just two percentage points), Kaneko won both the Sawamura Award and the PL MVP award.  He entertained thoughts of going to MLB that winter but needed elbow surgery and resigned with the Buffaloes.

He missed time during the 2015 and 2016 seasons with elbow and shoulder injuries but bounced back in 2017 to go 12-8 with an ERA of 3.47.  He again missed time with injuries in 2018 and left Orix as a free agent at the end of the season, signing on with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.

Fighters manager Hideki Kuriyama used him as an "opener" in 2019 and he pitched pretty well in the role, going 8-7 with a 3.04 ERA that season.  His remaining three seasons with Nippon-Ham were not as successful and the team released him at the end of last season.  He wasn't able to latch on with another team and announced his retirement in late December.  He'll be a coach for the Fighters this season and spent some time in spring training this year in the Texas Rangers camp.

Besides the MVP and Sawamura awards in 2014, Kaneko also won his only Best 9 and Golden Glove awards.  He led the PL in wins in 2010 and 2014, ERA in 2014 and strikeouts in 2013.  He made three All Star teams (2009, 2014 and 2019) but never played in a Nippon Series.  

His first baseball cards were from the 2005 BBM Rookie Edition (#25) and 1st Version (#202), and Buffaloes team (#Bs08) sets.  He appeared in either or both of BBM's "flagship" sets every year from 2007 until 2020.  His first Calbee card wasn't until 2008 Series One (#095).  The TCDB.com list of his cards is here and here's a bunch of them:

2005 BBM Rookie Edition #25

2005 BBM 1st Version #202

2008 Calbee #OP-23

2009 BBM All Stars #A09

2011 Orix Bs Club #4

2012 BBM Buffaloes #BsM1

2013 Front Runner Buffaloes Season Summary #06

2014 Calbee #097

2016 Calbee #ES-05

2019 BBM 1st Version #058

2022 BBM Fighters #F08

One more thing about Kaneko - he changed the Kanji for his name from "金子 千尋" to "金子 弌大" when he signed with the Fighters although the English version remained the same.   You can see this change on the backs of his 2005 and 2019 1st Version cards: