Cracking The Code

2021 JABA Player Cards # 21JP082

I mentioned in my post last week about the 2024 JABA Player Cards that it looked like there was a directly relationship between the set's checklist and the players listed in the "Prospect Player List" pdf that's available on the webpage that's referenced by a QR code on the wrapper.  I've done some further investigation (mostly by checking items for sale on Mecari) and I've confirmed that the players in that pdf are the players in the checklist and they appear in the checklist in the same order that they appear in the list.  I've generated a full checklist for the set.

What I realized then was that the previous JABA sets that I had opened packs for - 2021 and 2022 - had also had QR codes that referenced this same page.  However, there were different "Prospect Player List" pdfs for those years which was no longer available on the website.  They were, however, findable via the Wayback Machine and I was able to use them (along with the cards I had and the ones for sale on Mercari) to generate checklists for both of those sets as well.  Here's all three checklists:

2022 JABA Player Card #22JP014

There are 92 cards in the 2021 set, 88 in the 2022 set and 90 in the 2024 set (although as I mentioned in my post about the set, there's only 45 players in the 2024 set - each player has a "normal" and a "foil" card).  There's quite a bit of overlap between the 2021 and 2022 sets as they have 84 players in common.  A number of those players also appear in the 2024 set although I didn't actually do the research to figure out how many there or who they were.

I'm very confident that the 2021 and 2024 checklists are complete and accurate and only a little less confident of the 2022 one.  The version of the "Prospect Player List" that corresponded to the 2022 set lists a player (Shinjiro Ishii) that I'm 99.9% sure does not actually appear in the set.  I verified the card numbers of some 57 of the 88 cards in the set and removing him from the list is the only way to reconcile the pdf with the cards I saw.

The 2021 set includes nine players who have since been drafted by NPB teams - Ryosuke Ohtsu (2022 Hawks 2nd), Kei Kawano (2022 Carp 5th), Atsuya Kogita (2021 Buffaloes 7th), Atsuya Hirohata (2021 Marines 3rd), Hiromasa Funabasa (2022 Giants 5th), Ryuya Matsumoto (2021 Carp 5th), Shunya Morita (2023 Giants 2nd), Hiroki Fukunaga (2022 Dragons 7th) and Shita Suekane (2021 Carp 6th).  Suekane is probably the biggest name here which is why his card's for sale on Mercari for 5200 yen.  The 2022 set only has six draftees with Ryuji Komago (2022 Eagles 2nd) joining the Ohtsu, Kawano, Funabasa, Morita and Fukunaga.  Obviously no one from the 2024 set has been drafted yet but that'll probably change in three months.

All three sets include cards of Ryouske Aizawa and Motoki Mukoyama who appeared in the 2019 Panini USA Baseball Stars & Stripes Japanese Collegiate All Stars memorabilia cards.  The 2024 set does not include any of the players from the 2024 version of the Panini set who are now playing in the corporate leagues.

I know that there was a 2023 set but I've only seen one card from it so they're apparently on the rare side.  I went to a corporate league game when I was in Japan - it was part of the Tokyo qualifier for the Intercity Tournament.  There were no cards for sale but there was some sheets of cards on the table where I bought my ticket for the game.  I asked about them and were told they weren't for sale but they did let me take a picture of them:

I don't know what these are as they don't look like the one 2023 card that I've seen (which appears to have a similar design to the 2024 cards).