Seiya Inoue

Seiya Inoue, the somewhat rotund slugger from the Chiba Lotte Marines, announced his retirement back at the beginning of October.  Inoue had been a bit of star at Chuo University but decided to play corporate league ball with Nippon Life for a couple years after graduation.  He registered for the 2013 NPB draft and was taken in the fifth round by Lotte.  Inoue's nickname was "Aja" after the heavyset female wrestler Aja Kong

He had an impressive first season on the farm in 2014, hitting .377 with 14 home runs in just 58 games and won the MVP award at the Fresh All Star game, the all star game for the farm leagues.  He'd hit over .300 on the farm in each of the next few seasons but it wasn't until 2018 that he was able to produce with the top team when given the opportunity.  He hit .292 with 24 home runs and 99 RBIs in 133 games that season and followed it up with another 24 home run campaign in 2019 although his average dropped to .252.  His average continued to decline in 2020, dropping to .245 and he only hit 15 home runs (with three coming in one game on July 28th).  Age and injuries cut into his playing time after that with him only having played in 115 games with the top team between 2021 and 2023 and none at all in 2024.

His first BBM cards were in the 2014 Rookie Edition (#021) and 1st Version (#080).  His first Calbee card was surprisingly in the 2014 Series Two set (#104) - I say surprisingly because it's rare for Calbee to include cards of players in their rookie season, especially fifth round picks.  Here's a handful of his cards:

2014 BBM 1st Version #021

2014 BBM 1st Version #080

2016 BBM Marines #M50

2018 Epoch NPB #204

2020 Epoch One #213

2021 Calbee Series One #011

2023 Topps NPB #165

2024 BBM Marines #M52