Kazuyoshi Tatsunami was a fixture on the Dragons from 1988 to 2009. He came up as a shortstop, but switched to second base at age 22. Although he spent time at third and in the outfield also, the vast majority of his time was spent at second base. Offensively, he seems to have been a contact hitter with good control of the strike zone, but he had no other real offensive skills. Limited power: career high of 16 home runs, and was often in the single digits. But his lack of power was not offset of blinding speed or anything; as a rookie he stole 22 bases, but was usually in the single digits there too.
Although he in fact moved around in the line-up a fair bit, he really profiles as a #2 hitter. Managers usually want more speed from the leadoff position than he had, and he clearly didn’t have enough power to hit in the middle of the lineup. But his bat-to-ball skills were quite good, and that’s traditionally something that you look for from the second guy in the order. (Of course Mike Trout hits second, and “limited power” isn’t how I’d describe him, but I think that this is more a reflection of old ways changing than anything.)
Because Tatsunami is also in the hall of fame, this is my second post about him. The first can be found
here.
Meikyukai:
Yes – Hall of Fame:
Yes
1998 Calbee. There are plenty of Calbee’s from 98 and later floating around, cards from 97 and before are harder to find. My impression is that it's even get Calbee cards from the 1970s than from the 80s or early 90s.