It was draft day in NPB today and, as always, my friend Deanna has posted the results in English on her blog. I've been able to track down six players who were drafted today that already have baseball cards. Three of them were drafted out of the corporate leagues and so had cards in the JABA sets from recent years. One of them was drafted off of the independent farm team Oisix Niigata Albirex but had previously played in the corporate league so he, too, appeared in the JABA sets. One player appeared in the 2024 Panini Stars & Stripes Japanese Collegiate National Team autographed/memorabilia inserts and the last one is Rintaro Sasaki, who has a boatload of cards from various Panini sets. I should add that I still have not generated a checklist for the 2023 JABA set and I don't know much about the team sets issued for the various independent teams so it's entirely possible there are others who already have cards.
Here's the list of players with a list of their cards (except Sasaki because there's too many to list). Some of the cards here are mine and some are images swiped from Mercari:
Taisei Chinen, Oisix Niigata Albirex, Giants 5th ikusei
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| 2022 JABA #22JP079 |
2021 JABA #21JP084
2022 JABA #22JP079
Hiromi Katayama, Honda, Baystars #4
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| 2022 JABA #22JP010 |
2022 JABA #22JP010
2025 JABA #25JP007
Shota Masui, Toyoda, Swallows #4
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| 2025 JABA #25JP024 |
2025 JABA #25JP024
Asahi Miyashita, Toyo University, Baystars #3
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| 2024 Panini Stars & Stripes USA Baseball #JPN-AM Autographed Version |
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| 2024 Panini Stars & Stripes USA Baseball #JPN-AM |
2024 Panini Stars & Stripes USA Baseball #JPN-AM Autographed Version /58
2024 Panini Stars & Stripes USA Baseball #JPN-AM
Rintaro Sasaki, Stanford, Hawks #1
Too many to list here
Takanori Takahashi, JR East, Hawks #5
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| 2025 JABA #25JP046 |
2025 JABA #25JP046
I did track down a card of Chinen with Albirex from this season but I don't know if it was part of team set or some sort of one off:
I want to note that Miyashita is the last player from the 2023 collegiate Samurai Japan set commemorated in the 2024 Panini Stars & Stripes USA Baseball set to graduate from college. 20 of the 26 six players on that team have now been drafted while the other six are playing in the corporate leagues. I think all six were eligible to be drafted this year (collegiate players who don't declare for the draft upon graduation and instead go play in the corporate or indy leagues have to wait two years before they can enter the draft. High school players have to wait three years) but none of them were.
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