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Today was the last day of the second block of spring camp.  The team has the day off tomorrow.

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Saburo was excused from practices today after he was diagnosed with acute gastritis.

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1st round draft pick Takahiro Fujioka and 2nd round draft pick Yuhei Nakaushiro will both be starting an intra-squad game on February 11.  They are both expected to toss three innings.

Yuki Karakawa faced Masato Watanabe and Keisuke Hayasaka during batting practice today.  He threw a total sixty-two pitches, including his curve.

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3rd round draft pick Daichi Suzuki started working out again today.

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Sports Hochi notes that it took Shota Ishimine about thirteen steps to steal second last year.  He is trying to cut that down to eleven steps this year.

====== UPDATE 2/9 @ 2:02am

Tadahito Iguchi will be giving a bat made of white ash a try.

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2nd round draft pick Yuhei Nakaushiro faced Ikuhiro Kiyota and Shota Ishimine during batting practice on Monday and allowed fourteen could-be hits on sixty-eight pitches (fastballs) during batting practice on Monday.

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Norifumi Nishimura told reporters today that he felt his players were not taking full advantage of their speed and that they should work on honing their skills during exhibition games.  He also said that Shota Ishimine and Yoshifumi Okada could probably combine for at least 100 stolen bases while Ikuhiro Kiyota could probably steal thirty.

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Tarento Risa Yoshiki visited Ichi-gun spring camp today as part of a Valentine's Day project and handed out chocolates to Yuki Karakawa, 1st round draft pick Takahiro Fujioka, and Norifumi Nishimura.

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Total Tenboss (comedy duo) visited the team early this morning and performed one of their newest acts.

====== UPDATE 2/8 @ 2:28am

2nd round draft pick Nakaushiro may have struggled with his control during his batting practice outing on Monday because of the pitcher's safety net.

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1st round draft pick Takahiro Fujioka faced Tadahito Iguchi and Masato Watanabe and threw eighty pitches during batting practice on Monday and allowed eight could-be hits.

2nd round draft pick Yuhei Nakaushiro threw sixty-eight pitches during batting practice on Monday.  Twenty-four of the pitches were balls.

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3rd round draft pick Daichi Suzuki is scheduled to rejoin the team for practices beginning on February 8 (he was out with the flu).  Suzuki will workout under a different schedule for two days and could then join general practices beginning on February 11.

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1st round draft pick Fujioka originally planned on throwing about fifty pitches in the bullpen on Sunday, but kept going until he hit eighty because Ikuhiro Kiyota and Saburo spent some time watching him pitch from the batter's box.

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After practices on Sunday, Lotte players held a youth baseball clinic.  Because of the rain, they had to hold the clinic indoors.

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Carlos Rosa's wife is pregnant with the couple's first child.  She is due to delivery some time next month.

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The Marines will be playing four of their six intra-squad games on weekends (February 11, 12, 18, 19).  They scheduled the intra-squad games on the weekend because they know that is when most fans will be visiting the stadium.

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1st round draft pick Takahiro Fujioka will likely make an intra-squad start on February 11.

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2nd round draft pick Yuhei Nakaushiro will begin testing two types of sliders (horizontal and vertical break).

He also told reporters on Saturday that he did not want people calling him Yu-chan because there is already another pitcher in the league going by the nickname (Yuki Saito, Nippon Ham).

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When special instructor Norihiro Komada was asked which player caught his eye so far during spring camp, he said Shunichi Nemoto.

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The team had the day off today.

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1st round draft pick Takahiro Fujioka, 2nd round draft pick Yuhei Nakaushiro, and 4th round draft pick Naoya Masuda tried planting some rice on their day off today

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Today was the end of the first block of spring camp for the Marines.  The team has the day off tomorrow.

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3rd round draft pick Daichi Suzuki was diagnosed with influenza A today.

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While special instructor Norihiro Komada was brought in to help Shoitsu Omatsu with his conversion to first, he also spent some time giving players like Toshiaki Imae, Omatsu, Takahito Kudo, and Takeshi Aono, hitting tips during soft toss BP on Thursday.

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Pitchers have been asked to throw between 2,000 and 2,500 pitches during spring camp.

3rd round draft pick Daichi Suzuki appears to be gaining some ground as a possible short stop candidate.

"Shunichi Nemoto and Kei Hosoya are equal candidates at short, but Suzuki looks good on defense and offense and he is an interesting player.  I want to see how he does in games," said INF/base-running coach Kenichi Sato.

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Pitching coach Takashi Nishimoto helped 2nd round draft pick Yuhei Nakaushiro with his slide step after general pitcher workouts today.

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Toshiaki Imae switched over to using a bat with a thicker bat handle, but broke it.  He already ordered additional bats, but their delivery date was pushed back due to the snow.

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1st round draft pick Takahiro Fujioka tossed his bullpen session on Wednesday at about 60-70%.

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Special fielding instructor Norihiro Komada spent time working with Shoitsu Omatsu on gloving/scooping one-hoppers on Wednesday.

The first day of camp began with an early morning walk and calisthenics.  Players also did morning shout-outs toward the ocean.

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Bullpen sessions:

Wednesday

1st round draft pick Takahiro Fujioka threw 72 pitches, including four curves.

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2nd round draft pick Yuhei Nakaushiro threw 50 pitches and struggled with his control.  Tomoya Satozaki caught parts of the session.

Softbank Hawks

The Hawks participated in a night parade in Miyazaki on Tuesday and celebrated their Nippon Series Championship.  About 42,000 fans showed up to watch the parade.

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The Hawks announced that Alex Cabrera will be arriving in Japan on February 2 and will join the team in Miyazaki on February 3.

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Pitching coach Ikuo Takayama thinks Takahiro Mahara might end up missing a good chunk of time because of right shoulder.

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The Hawks are thinking about taking out an insurance policy to cover any damages that Wily Mo Pena might cause if/when he hits the big screen.  Incidentally, if Pena can hit the Yodobashi Camera ad out in left, he will be rewarded with 10M points from Yodobashi Camera.  No one has managed to hit the sign.

Seibu Lions

The Lions arrived in Miyazaki on Tuesday and attended a welcoming ceremony at Miyazaki Airport.

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The Lions held a press conference for Enrique Gonzalez at Nango Prince Hotel on Tuesday.

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Hideto Asamura will play anywhere if it means he gets more playing time.  Last season, Asamura played five different positions: 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, and RF.  He could end up playing at seven different positions this season (addition of SS and CF).

FYI: Hisanobu Watanabe does not plan on giving Asamura one set position and will instead make changes based on what the team needs.

Asamura worked on his lower body this off-season and increased his weight to 87kg (up 5kg from last year).

Orix Buffaloes

Dae-Ho Lee arrived in Miyakojima, Okinawa on Tuesday and made it to the general team meeting.  He later told reporters that he was at about 60-70%.

Lee had a chance encounter with Ichiro Suzuki when he dropped by Hotto Motto Kobe on Monday for photos.

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Akinobu Okada told reporters on Monday that Chihiro Kaneko will be the opening day starter (though he has not yet informed him).

Okada visited Miyakojima Stadium on Monday and was pleased with the improvements they made since last spring -- the city spent about 30M yen on renovations.

Chiba Lotte Marines

Norifumi Nishimura named Toshiaki Imae team captain.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka was the team captain in 2010.  The Marines did not have a team captain last year.

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1st round draft pick Takahiro Fujioka would like to toss a bullpen session (squatting catcher) on the first day of spring camp.  Fujioka currently weighs 88kg and is hoping to tone his body and drop about 3kg during spring camp.