Chunichi Dragons' manager Morimichi Takagi will act as head coach for Samurai Japan.

In addition: a pitching coach will be selecting from the Nippon Ham Fighters; a batting coach from the Yakult Swallows; and fielding / base-running coaches from the Seibu Lions and Yomiuri Giants.

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The NPB will:

1. invite 12,000 people from Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukashima to the game.
2. donate a portion of revenue from the game to relief efforts in northern Japan.
3. auction off Samurai Japan game day uniforms after the game and donate 100% of the revenue.

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Additional info on the pin badges: they will be called Samurai Japan Honor Pins, be individually serialized, and be made out of 18K gold.  The badges are scheduled to be handed out at some point during spring camp in February.

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For the first time since the 2008 Olympics, Chunichi players will be allowed to participate in an international game.  Four players (Hitoki Iwase, Masahiko Morino, Takuya Asao, and Akifumi Takahashi) were considered for the 2009 WBC roster, but none were permitted to participate because Chunichi was worried about injuries.

FYI: of the 24 players named to the roster, 17 are first-timers.

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See also:

Higashi Nihon Earthquake Relief Baseball Match supported by Konami

The Pacific League held an informal owner's meeting on Friday in order to discuss a number of issues that included the NPB's move to becoming a General Incorporated Association (一般社団法人), the WBC, and Samurai Japan.  The PL is hoping to supplement their usual owner meeting's with these types of informal meetings at a rate of once every two to three months.

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A three-day umpire trial training course began on Friday at Jingu Stadium.  A number of instructors, including umpire technical committee member Takeshi Hirabayashi, coached 33 participants.  The NPB sees this as a potential first step towards building an umpire school.

Yakult Swallows

Orlando Roman arrived in Japan on Friday.  Roman played winter ball in Puerto Rico through to December 26 and has tossed bullpen session once every two days since then.

Wladimir Balentien also arrived in Japan on Friday.

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2nd round draft pick Ryohei Kiya, 4th round draft pick Yuya Ota, and 6th round draft pick Masato Furuno all tossed bullpen sessions on Thursday (squatting catchers).

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Nikkan Sports provides the following quotes from Lastings Milledge:

My friends know what kind of person I am.  My image will change if I put up good numbers. ... It usually takes me about twenty minutes to get to the airport, but there was an accident that caused a traffic jam and it took me an hour and twenty minutes.  It is not as if I did not want to come, or got scared about coming.

Milledge could end up batting fifth in the line-up while playing left field.

Hiroshima Carp

Kam Mickolio and Nick Stavinoha arrived in Japan on Thursday.  The Carp held a press conference for both players at Mazda Stadium today.

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1st round draft pick Yusuke Nomura plans to proactively introduce himself to each and every player on the team beginning on January 31.

Yokohama Bay Stars

Alex Ramirez visited the DeNA offices in Shibuya on Friday and met about 100 or so of the company employees.  Incidentally, it was Ramirez that pushed for the visit.

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Takehiro Ishikawa managed to gain three kilograms without any change in his fat content (7.8%).

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Taketoshi Goto is ready to play anywhere he is needed: outfield (left), third, first.  He also dropped his weight from 94kg to 85kg.

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Kiyoshi Nakahata plans to have players work on the base-running skills during spring camp.

Softbank Hawks

The Hawks held a staff meeting at Yahoo Dome on Friday to talk about player assignment for spring camp.  A finalized list will be released on January 30.

5th round draft pick Shinya Kayama is scheduled to start things off with group A.

Nippon Ham Fighters

The Fighters announced player assignments for spring camp on Friday.

Orix Buffaloes

The Buffaloes renewed their insurance policy for the secondary Kobe field on Friday.  The team originally signed up for insurance at the stadium in 2009 when Takahiro Okada hit a ball that cleared the netting in right.  With the addition of Dae-Ho Lee, the team is now also worried about the ball clearing the netting in left.

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The hotel the team will be using during spring camp, Breeze Bay Marina, has an extra large bed prepared in case Lee needs it.  The hotel is already ready to serve Korean food, if necessary.

Rakuten Eagles

The Eagles are planning to give Ken Kadokura (38) a tryout in Sendai sometime this month.  He could be a candidate for the starting rotation.

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The Eagles will begin selling a limited number of spring camp merchandise on February 1.

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Senichi Hoshino would like to see Golden Glove Awards and Best Nine Awards for outfielders broken up into left, center, and right instead of as one group.  He would also like to see an award category for players that come off the bench.

Chiba Lotte Marines

Tadahito Iguchi has been using bats made of Japanese ash.  He is thinking about trying bats made out of maple and white ash this year.

The Lions had their send-off celebration today.  About 3,560 fans attended the event.

The players will head to Miyazaki on January 31.

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The Lions held a press conference for Chris Carter, Esteban German, Randy Williams, and Micheal Nakamura today.

Williams is a candidate to close for the team.

Carter's educational background (like Nikkan Sports and Sanspo) is making some waves in the media: graduated from  Stanford University in three years; has a father, brother, and uncle that are all doctors and a second brother that is a pilot.

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The Lions will begin accepting designs for a uniform they will wear during a number of home games in August on February 1.  Children up through Junior High are eligible.  The deadline for submissions is February 20.

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Former Seibu Lions Kimiyasu Kudo (48) reportedly made his debut on TV Asahi's Hodo Station tonight with an interview with Masahiro Tanaka (RAK).

Early training camp at Chatan Park Baseball Stadium in Okinawa started today.  Workouts lasted about three hours and included running, fielding practices, and BP.  Some players were also seen using the new "CD" batting helmets.

FYI: The new uniforms will be unveiled on January 30.

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Morimichi Takagi arrived in Okinawa today.

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Kazuki Yoshimi visited Chatan and Yomitan offices after practices today.  He told reporters on Thursday that he was thinking about tossing his first bullpen session some time during the second block of spring camp (he wants to avoid throwing more than he needs to).

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Victor Diaz uses an 85 centimeter bat that weighs 907 grams.

The Hawks announced today that their team slogan for 2012 will be "VV."

The two V's stand for:

- the players and fans coming together as one to win
- two Pacific League championships (2010 and 2011)
- the hope for two straight Nippon Series rings (2011 and 2012)

They also announced that "otosan" dog will continue on as the team's oen leader.  The dog has been leader since 2009.

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Nikkan Sports reports that Sadaharu Oh wants Angel Castro to learn on how to throw a change-up.  Sports Hochi has posted a slightly different report that has Oh calling for Castro to learn how to throw a curve

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Yuichi Honda returned from his training session in Saipan today.

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Hiroki Kokubo returned from his training session in Arizona today.  He also told reporters his rehab was going well (necks surgery in December) and that he started taking soft-toss BP on January 18.

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Nobuhiko Matsunaka is scheduled to return to Japan from his training in Guam on January 28.  According to a Nikkan Sports interview, he is prepared to call it quits whenever he feels he is no longer able to play well.  He also does have an interest in reaching the 2,000-hit mark (he is 269 hits away).

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1st round draft pick Shota Takeda threw 29 pitches (including off-speed pitches) in the bullpen (standing catcher) after practices on Thursday.  Takeda also threw 30 pitches in the bullpen the night before -- Ikusei 1st round draft pick Go Kamamoto "caught" him.

Tomoyuki Kubota threw 109 pitches (including off-speed pitches) in the bullpen today.

Minoru Iwata tossed 21 pitches during his first session of the year (standing catcher).

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Tomoaki Kanemoto is planning to push himself hard on weights during spring camp so that he can maintain his current muscle mass.

Kanemoto worked out at Koshien on Thursday.

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Daiki Enokida is still looking for a hobby he can turn to when he needs to take a break from baseball.

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The media learned today that Yasutomo Kubo has agreed to a deal and will sign on the dotted line on January 31.

As for how the team plans to use him this year: they are still undecided and will most likely wait until some time in March (when they have a better idea of what the starting rotation will look like) to decide.  Until then, Kubo plans to prepare himself as a starter (unless he is told otherwise).  It seems he would also rather the team decide by the time spring camp starts.

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Keiichi Hirano still does not have a deal in place, but GM Eiichi Takano did tell reporters today that he felt a deal could be reached before the start of spring camp.

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Nikkan Sports reports that there is now more than a good chance Matt Murton will not make the start of spring camp since his wife has yet to give birth to their third child.

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1st round draft pick Hayata Ito told reporters he hardly brought anything with him to Okinawa, other than his baseball equipment -- he even left his laptop behind. ... Ito's family is planning to visit spring camp some time around February 19. ... Ito did not take a single day off from practices between January 7 (day he moved into the player dorm) and January 25 (the day before he left for early training camp in Okinawa). ... Ito worked out for about five and a half hours today.

4th round draft pick Kazuo Ito can not wait until he has the chance to face batters during spring camp.  Said Ito, "I would like to face good batters like [Tomoaki] Kanemoto.  I want to see how good my fastball is against pro competition."  He packed a book on forkballs by Kazuhiro Sasaki.

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Fumihito Haraguchi worked out at Naruohama on Thursday and told reporters some of the things he did during his workouts with Kenji Jojima in Sasebo, Nagasaki.

We did a lot more running and trunk strengthening exercises than I thought we would.  It was a pretty hard session.  There were days we ran poles 20 times.  Everyone did the same stuff.

That means Jojima ran about 2.4km on days they did poles (estimate of about 120 meters between poles).

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The Coming of Age commemorative items Takumi Akiyama and Haraguchi received from the team on Thursday: a bus pass case and a key case.

The Giants held a press conference at their team offices to introduce Scott Mathieson and John Bowker today.  Both players arrived in Japan earlier in the day.

Tatsunori Hara was also at the press conference -- the last time he attended a press conference for a foreign player: 2006 when Seug-Yeop Lee joined the team.

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Shun Tono tossed a bullpen session (standing catcher) today, the first day of early training camp in Miyazaki.

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Tetsuya Utsumi tossed 35 pitches in the bullpen (standing catcher) today.

Utsumi organized a meal-time gathering at a Yakiniku restaurant for pitchers attending early training camp in Miyazaki on Thursday.  The outing lasted about three and a half hours and allowed players Toshiya Sugiuchi the chance to get to know other pitchers on the staff.

Sugiuchi also had a chance to introduce himself during a team meeting at the player hotel on Thursday.

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The Giants may give Taishi Ota a look in center during spring camp (they want to take more advantage of his speed and arm).

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Shuichi Murata apparently wants to sign about 1,000 autographs during spring camp.

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Seems the Yomiuri Giants are not the only ones high on Ryosuke Miyaguni: Hanshin Tiger Yasutomo Kubo told reporters on Thursday that he was impressed with the 19-year-old prospect.

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A weight room was added to the facilities at Sun Marine Stadium -- a training room on first base side near the indoor bullpens was converted and equipped with weight training equipment.  The Giants "donated" the weight room to Miyazaki by footing the bill (about 14M yen).

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Sugiuchi worked out in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima between January 4 and January 23.  He returned to Fukuoka after that and traveled to Miyazaki on Thursday by himself.

Sanspo is reporting that the Chunichi Dragons will be giving right-handed pitcher Jorge Sosa (34) a tryout during spring camp in Okinawa.

UPDATE @ 9:42pm - Sosa is scheduled to arrive in Okinawa on January 28 and will begin preparations for a tryout sometime after January 29.

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Career Stats