Kenta Asakura

Another player who retired as of the end of the 2015 season is Kenta Asakura of the Dragons.  Asakura was taken by the Dragons out of high school in the first round of the fall 1999 draft.  His best seasons with the Dragons were in their pennant winning seasons of 2006 and 2007 when he went 13-6 and 12-7 respectively.  He got hurt during the 2008 season, having some sort of blood circulation problem in his right hand.  His pitching never really recovered after that and he spent probably more time with the Dragons' farm team than with the ichi-gun team.  Asakura made an All Star team once (in 2006) and played in three Nippon Series (2004, 2006 and 2007) - winning it all in 2007.

His rookie cards are from the 2000 BBM sets - #410 in the flagship set plus a draft pick card in the Preview set (#P127).  His first Calbee card was not until 2002 (#121).  He last appeared on a BBM flagship set in 2010.

2000 BBM Preview #P127

2000 BBM #$10

2002 Calbee #121

2003 Chunichi Sports

2006 BBM All Stars #A47

2006 BBM Central League Champion Dragons #05

2007 BBM Nippon Series #S05

2010 BBM 1st Version #039

2005 BBM Dragons #D05