Daisuke Matsuzaka

FastWillie

What will be considered his rookie card?




fastwillie

Gonblott

Here

joestalin

His best card will have ink on it, wether its his rookie card or not. Look for 07 releases to take over for the SPA. Rickie Weeks is a good
example

Kevin

CDsNuts

I've been thinking about a short-term investment on this guy- he's blowing people away in exhibition games, and some guys are saying they've never even seen some of his pitches. I expect the first half of the season will be like Nomo's rookie year, and everybody will get used to him and figure him out, at least a little.

I'm holding off on the SPA as well and will wait for an auto'd RC.

Lee

Jdurg

I have yet to see a Japanese pitcher dominate in the Major Leagues aside from Kazurhiro Sasaki for Seattle. However, Sasaki was a closer and that makes things MUCH easier for a pitcher since you just need ONE, or maybe two, good pitches to be able to dominate. As a starter, you have to deal with the same people over and over again multiple times. I think Sasaki will have a DOMINANT start to the season, but the second time around he will probably be shelled.

wheat34

It will be a 2007 card for his MLB rookie card. The 2006 SP Authentic card is nothing more than a subset. It is basically like the "prospect" subset that Bowman started last year.

There will be PLENTY of rookies to choose from.

Harry

ctsoxfan

Agreed - and, I doubt there will be any investing going on with his cards...they will be so high coming out of the gate, that it's doubtful you will be able to obtain any (especially the autos) at prices that will allow you to flip them and profit at some point. It's not like he's exactly flying under the radar.

Jdurg

True. When guys like Pettite and Mariano Rivera came up, it was right at the tail end of the "unknowns make it big" era. Sadly, at that time cards were produced by the billions so their rookies aren't worth too much. I actually miss the days where unknowns came to the big leagues and had an impact. It seems like these days anybody who's even remotely good is known about years before he comes to the big leagues.