A third former NPB pitcher also found a home for the 2025 season last Friday. In addition to Sasaki and Fujinami, former Tigers pitcher Koyo Aoyagi signed a minor league deal with the Phillies.
The sidearmer was Hanshin's fifth round pick in the 2015 draft out of Teikyo University. He split his first couple seasons between the farm team and the top team before spending almost all of 2018 on the farm. He established himself the team's starting rotation in 2019 and had his best two seasons in 2021 and 2022, leading the Central League in wins and winning percentage both years as well as ERA in 2022. His numbers tumbled some in the past two years but he was still the Tigers' Opening Day starter both seasons as well as the starter in Game 7 of the 2023 Nippon Series. He made the All Star team in 2019, 2021 and 2022 and won a Best 9 award in 2022. He also was a member of the gold medal winning Samurai Japan squad for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games.
His first card was #085 in the 2016 BBM Rookie Edition set. His only other cards from major sets that year were in BBM's 1st Version and Tigers team sets. His first Calbee card wasn't until 2019 Series Three. Here's a random selection of his cards:
 |
| 2016 BBM Rookie Edition #085 |
 |
| 2016 BBM 1st Version #242 |
 |
| 2017 Epoch Tigers #15 |
 |
| 2018 BBM Tigers #T27 |
 |
| 2019 BBM 2nd Version #372 |
 |
| 2020 Calbee Series Three #FW-09 |
 |
| 2021 Topps NPB #86-KA |
 |
| 2022 BBM Fusion #TH17 |
 |
| 2023 BBM Tigers #T06 |
 |
| 2024 Topps Stadium Club NPB #61 |
No comments:
Post a Comment