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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

Nagisa Arakaki was supposed to pitch 2 innings during last night's exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers, but didn't because of some discomfort in his neck (he slept on it wrong and hasn't done any pitching since 2/28).  The Hawks will continue to monitor Arakaki and will have him toss a bullpen session before deciding when to pitch him next.

Chiba Lotte Marines

Takuya Takahama's new uniform number will likely be 00.  Seems the team has already asked Takahama to be ready to play on the 5th.

Hanshin Tigers

Kenji Jojima took 51 swings during his first round of  outdoor BP today.

Chiba Lotte Marines

The could hold a press conference for Takuya Takahama as early as on the 4th in Hiroshima.  He'll probably join the Ichi-gun roster from there and might even play in his first exhibition game with the team on the 5th (vs Hiroshima at Mazda Stadium).

Orix Buffaloes

Yoshihisa Hirano threw 42 pitches to Mitsutaka Goto, Takahiro Okada, and Seung-Yeop Lee during BP today and gave up 6 could-be hits.

According to Sanspo, Keisuke Kaneko is only suspected of having gout.  In either case, he's taking medication and the team will wait to see how things turn out.  If his condition doesn't improve (he's have a hard time walking due to pain in his right big toe), he'll make another visit to the hospital.

The Orix Buffaloes and Chiba Lotte Marines played a practice game on Tuesday (3/1) in Kochi.  The game lasted 8 innings and the Marines beat the Buffaloes, 3-2.

Yuta Omine (LOT) started the game for Lotte and allowed 2 runs on 3 hits over 3 innings of work.

The game started 30 minutes late due to the weather and about 800 fans were in attendance.

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In other Lotte news:

Chiba Marine Stadium officially became QVC Marine Field on Tuesday (3/1).  QVC Marine Field underwent a number of renovations during the off-season, including the installation of new turf, a fresh coat of paint on the seats, and the changeover of the ball/strike count on the scoreboard from strikes-balls-outs to balls-strikes-outs.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

===== 2/25 @ 9:02pm

Norifumi Nishimura sees tomorrow's game against the Nippon Ham Fighters as the perfect opportunity for the younger Lotte players to get their names out to the public (a large crowd is expected since Yuki Saito will probably pitch).

Ishimine is slated to start in right and bat 9th.

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The Marines announced Yoshihisa Naruse's Happy Family Seats (家族だんらんシート) today.

===== 2/25 @ 3:24pm

Shota Ishimine (1st round) told reporters yesterday that he felt his hitting improved the most during spring camp.

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The Marines decided yesterday that they'll send Bob McCrory down to Ni-gun after the 27th.  The Marines shut McCrory down (no throwing) towards the end of spring camp because of tightness in his body, most likely due to fatigue.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

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The Marines closed out their spring camp in Ishigaki, Okinawa today.

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Atsushi Kobayashi (3rd round) threw 68 pitches in the bullpen today.  Kobayashi also celebrated his 25th birthday today.

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The team doesn't want to rush Toshiaki Imae and realize he may not be ready for the start of the regular season (he's making his way back from a left calf strain).  Once Imae is healthy again, the Marines will probably have him play a few games at Ni-gun before bringing him back up to Ichi-gun.

Tatsuya Uchi and Shingo Ono are also at Ni-gun working their way back from injuries.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

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Yuta Omine threw 56 pitches in the bullpen today.  50 of the 56 pitches were also fastballs.

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Kazunori Yamamoto threw 93 pitches in the bullpen today.  He also checked each pitch he threw with the catcher (Shota Koike) since he was also working on his slide step.

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Takashi Ogino collected a hit in the 7th inning of yesterday's intra-squad game.  Prior to that, he had gone 14 straight intra-squad plate appearances without a hit.  He also successfully made a diving grab and throw during the game.

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Norifumi Nishimura announced his starters for the next three non-intra-squad games:

2/26 vs Nippon Ham Fighters - Atsushi Kobayashi (3rd round)

2/27 vs Chunichi Dragons - Atsuhiro Mitsuhara

3/1  vs Orix Buffaloes - Omine

Nishimura also plans to use these three games to pare down the 20 or so pitchers currently with the Ichi-gun group.