Sunday, November 8, 2015

Hisanori Takahashi

Yet another player who retired at the end of the 2015 season was Baystars pitcher Hisanori Takahashi.  He was drafted in the first round by the Giants in the 1999 draft out of Toshiba in the industrial leagues.  He had previously played for Komazawa in the Tohto collegiate league.  His best season with the Giants was 2007, when he went 14-4 with an ERA of 2.75 and 141 strikeouts.  That season was the only time he ever made an All Star team or was voted onto the post-season Best 9 team.

He left Yomiuri following the 2009 season to give MLB a try.  He signed a minor league deal with the Mets and spent all of 2010 with the big league team, going 10-6 with a 3.61 ERA in 53 appearances, mostly in relief.  He signed with the Angels for the 2011 season and spent most of the next two seasons with them.  He was released in late 2012 and was picked up by the Pirates.  Released once again after the 2012 season, he signed with the Cubs and made their 2013 opening day roster but was sent to Triple-A Iowa after just a couple weeks.  He was sold to the Rockies in June and spent the remainder of the season with their Triple-A team in Colorado Springs.  After the Rockies released him, he returned to Japan and signed with the Yokohama DeNA Baystars where he's spent the last two seasons.

I had a done a post on Takahashi when he left for the US six years ago so I'll only show a couple cards here:

2011 BBM Tohto 80th Memorial #09

2000 BBM #426

2006 Konami Baseball Heroes 2 Black Edition #B06B202

2014 Front Runner Baystars Rookies & Young Stars #05

2015 BBM Baystars #DB25

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