Hidden Treasures #8: 2006 Calbee Yu Darvish

[sanjosefuji]

The Texas Rangers might have lost the 2011 World Series, but they won the rights to sign Yu Darvish, the 25 year old ace from Japan.


Last year, Darvish was 18-6, with a 1.44 ERA in 28 games for the Nippon Ham Fighters. He led the Japan Pacific League in K's (276) and shutouts (6), plus he had the lowest WHIP (0.828) among starting pitchers.

2009 Bowman & Bowman Chrome WBC Prospects

He's had five consecutive seasons with an sub 2.00 ERA... is a 5x all-star... and has won two Pacific League MVP awards, two ERA titles, two Golden Glove awards, and three strikeout titles.




In 2009, he pitched the final out of the World Baseball Classic to help Japan secure the gold. It was back then, when I first came across his name, but of course he was already a super star in Japan.

I remember reading about how he would likely be the next big name to come out of Japan, so I decided to go out and pick up one of his Japanese baseball cards. The card at the top of this post is my 2006 Calbee.


Calbee is major snack producer from Japan, who started including baseball cards with their snacks back in 1973. From what I can tell... they still attach single card packs to the back side of specially marked packages... however, I'm not 100% sure. Here's a blogger who busted a box of 2011 Calbee (Series 2): Japanese Baseball Cards


According to this blogger, Darvish's rookie card is from the 2005 BBM 1st Version set. However 2006 was the first year that Calbee produced a card for him.


It should be interesting to see if the Rangers can sign him to a contract and whether or not he'll be successful in the MLB. What do you think?

What sort of success do you think Yu Darvish will have in the MLB?

Hall of Fame, like Ichiro (sorry, no Japanese pitchers have had HOF careers)?1x All-Star, like Nomo?Average Joe, like Matsuzaka?Epic Fail, like Kei Igawa?


Can't wait to read your thoughts. Here's MLB.Com's take on the guy:




According to them... he's not quite Stephen Strasburg... but better than Matt Moore.


Happy Tuesday everyone. Sayonara!





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[TakaTanakaGiants]

Hello Fuji-san,

You brought up the Calbee chips cards, so I thought I might post some pics on my Bucket.
TakaTanakaGiants's Public Profile on Photobucket.com

You get 2 cards per bag of chips. There's a chance for a Calbee Chips binder redemption, but I've never pulled one.
They come out with 3 series throughout a season. The bag in the pictures is the 3rd series.
It might be hard to see, but I pulled a Aoki (currently negotiating with Brewers) All-Star insert and an Aarom Baldiris (former Rangers and Yankees) base card.

Here's my take on Darvish...
Here in Japan, he's a baseball god. Worshiped by fans and revered by peers. Physically, he's better suited for the major leagues than say Matsuzaka. I project him to be a 2-3 starter for the majority of his MLB career.
Effective - Sure!
Worth the amount of money - Probably (depends on the contract he gets)
HOF caliber - Best chance of any other current (or foreseeable future) Japanese pitcher

That's just my 2 yen...

[sanjosefuji]

TakaTanakaGiants... Thanks for sharing the pictures and your 2cents. Great feedback.