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The Ichi-gun players had the day off on Monday.

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Head coach Takagi Yutaka observed Ni-gun workouts in Kadena, Okinawa on Monday.

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Daisuke Miura, Takayuki Shinohara, and Shintaro Ejiri will be called up to Ichi-gun camp on Tuesday.

Takehiro Ishikawa was excused from extra fielding practice on Monday afternoon because of a sore left foot.

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Pitching coach Yui Tomori had to stop Yuki Kuniyoshi from throwing too much on Sunday out of fear he might re-injure his right shoulder.

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Kentaro Takasaki faced Taketoshi Goto and Kazuya Fujita during batting practice on Sunday and allowed two could-be hits on forty-four pitches.  Takasaki threw a total 473 pitches during the first block of spring camp.

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Teammates were concerned with Yuki Yoshimura on Sunday because he was coughing during practices.

"It is not like I kissed Rami-chan so I should be ok.  I never really had strong bronchial tubes," said Yoshimura.

Yoshimura does not have a fever and is otherwise feeling ok.

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Kiyoshi Nakahata is still scheduled to return to the field on Tuesday.

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Alex Ramirez apparently got a flu shot in mid-January before returning to Japan.

Kiyoshi Nakahata told reporters on Tuesday that other than Alex Ramirez, everyone else on the team had to compete for a spot.

Nakahata showed up on the field at 9:07am and showed the media his Yokohama uniform and the number 70.

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Daisuke Miura and Yuki Kuniyoshi left the team hotel at around 6:10 for an early morning walk (lasted about thirty minutes).

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Yoshitomo Tsutsugo took part in a fielding practice session that lasted about forty minutes.  It was originally supposed to last twenty minutes but the time was doubled by Nakahata.  Yuta Naito, attempting a possible position change to the infield, was also part of the group.

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Alex Ramirez spent some time giving Yuki Yoshimura pointers on hitting.

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Team owner Makoto Haruta plans to stick around in Okinawa until Sunday (February 5).

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Bullpen sessions:

Wednesday

Every pitcher at Ginowan tossed a bullpen session with squatting catcher.

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Shun Yamaguchi threw 73 pitches.

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Kentaro Takasaki threw 58 pitches to a squatting catcher.

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Masanori Hayashi threw 50 pitches.

Taketoshi Goto worked out at the Yokosuka training facilities today for the first time since being traded to the Bay Stars.  His workouts lasted about five hours.

Goto worked out with Kazuhiro Wada (CHU) this winter and was told that players should not prepare themselves for the season during spring camp, but to be prepared to play from the first day of spring camp.

Goto dropped about nine kilograms since last year.

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Yuki Kuniyoshi threw 20 pitches (including curves) in the bullpen on Wednesday (squatting catcher).  He told reporters that he was close to throwing at 100% and that he was feeling good.

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When reporters asked Daisuke Miura what he thought of Kiyoshi Nakahata's plan to improve communication by leaving his door at the team hotel open during spring camp he replied, "I am worried about crime prevention."  He then said, in a more serious tone, "Communication is important and it would be good to have a chance to talk about all kinds of things."

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Nakahata is thinking about holding karaoke contests with players at the team hotel during spring camp.

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The team is planning on increasing the number of seats for the media at both Ginowan Stadium and the team hotel.  WiFi will also be available.

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Curfew during spring camp: 11pm on nights when there are practices the following day and midnight on nights where there are no practices the next day.  Nakahata does not plan to enforce these with an iron fist.

Alex Ramirez arrived at Narita Airport today.

"I have spent a lot of time working out at the gym.  My arms are much bigger than they were last year," said Ramirez.

He continued, "This is one of my goals.  I would like to try and record my 2,000th hit on my birthday on October 3."

Ramirez has also prepared a first baseman's mitt.

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Kiyoshi Nakahata worked out in Yokosuka, Kanagawa today.  He also spent about 20 minutes climbing up a small mountain at Tsukayama Park (133 meters) near the Ni-gun training facilities.

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Daisuke Miura does not want players to lose out to Nakahata's popularity.

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1st round draft pick Yujo Kitagata wants to play well enough for a chance to meet Yui Yokoyama (AKB48).  With his left knee better, he is also scheduled to toss a bullpen session soon.

Daisuke Miura worked out with Yuki Kuniyoshi and Hiroshi Kobayashi in Atsugi, Kanagawa on Saturday.  Workouts included warm-ups (mountain climbing) and playing catch.

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Shugo Fujii has played alongside Alex Ramirez with three different teams: the Yakult Swallows, Yomiuri Giants, and now the Bay Stars.

Fujii is also a fan of Mobage's Kaito Royale and has played so much he is over the level 1,000.

Regarding Fujii's uniform number 00, Sponichi provides the following little tidbit: the Hanshin Tigers made Ruppert Jones the first player to wear the number in 1988.  This season, ten players are scheduled to wear the number.

The Bay Stars announced today that Shintaro Ejiri will donate six AED devices to youth sports organizations in northern Japan.  Eijiri promised to donate one AED device for every ten games he appeared in last year (65 games).

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The Bay Stars may have Daisuke Miura (38) workout under a different program during the first half of spring camp in order to give younger players a shot.  That could also include other veterans like Norihiro Nakamura (38).

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Naoto Watanabe wants to show that he has decent speed on the base paths this year.  Watanabe was averaged a little under 25 stolen bases a year when he played for the Rakuten Eagles.  He experienced a drop-off last season with just 7 stolen bases.

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Some notes on the spring camp schedule: Ichi-gun camp will most likely be made up of 20 pitchers and 20 position players; Ni-gun camp around 30 players; intra-squad games could begin as early as around 2/11; five practice games are planned; the first block will last five days after which each additional block will last six days (each block will be followed by one day off).

Yomiuri Giants

Yoshinobu Takahashi became the 108th player in NPB history to collect 1,500 hits today.  The hit came in the bottom of the 5th inning with 1 out, no one on, and Bryan Bullington on the mound for Hiroshima.

Takahashi recorded his first hit on 4/3/1998 against the Yakult Swallows.

Yokohama Bay Stars

Daisuke Miura picked up his first victory of the year today.  The win also helped him set a new franchise record of recording at least one victory in 19 consecutive seasons (1993-2011).  The previous franchise record of 18 seasons was held by Masaji Hiramatsu (1967-1984).

I'll keep this updated throughout the day.  I'm hoping that all players and team personnel have been able to contact their families by now.

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Chunichi Dragons

Hiromitsu Ochiai is from Akita and told reporters that his parents were fine and that his family in Tokyo were fine as well.

Tony Blanco was about to take a shower after practice at Nagoya Stadium yesterday when the earthquake hit and rushed outside with just a towel wrapped around his waist.

Yomiuri Giants

Takanori Hoshi is from Miyagi and was able to contact his family.

Takahiro Suzuki is from Soma, Fukushima and learned from his younger brother that his family was safe.

A number of players, including Shun Tono and Shigeyuki Furuki were working out at Giants Stadium yesterday when the earthquake hit.  They all rushed out to the parking lot.  Cracks were found in a stairwell at the indoor facilities.

Yakult Swallows

Yoshinori Sato is from Sendai, Miyagi and used a phone in the press box yesterday because his mobile phone wouldn't dial out.  He was able to contact his family and was relieved to find them safe.

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama is from Hanamaki, Iwate and was able to contact his family.

Hiroshima Carp

Kenta Kurihara (from Tendo, Yamagata) and Tsubasa Aizawa (Ibaraki) were all able to confirm the safety of their families.

GM Kiyoaki Suzuki told reporters yesterday that there will still some players that haven't been able to contact their families.

Yokohama Bay Stars

Shinji Niinuma is from Ishinomaki, Miyagi and hasn't been able to get in touch with his family.  He told reporters he keeps getting busy signals and is really concerned because his family lives near the water.

A number of players, including Daisuke Miura, Takehiro Ishikawa, Hichori Morimoto, Tomokazu Oka, and Niinuma, spent the night at Yokohama Stadium due to traffic conditions.

Softbank Hawks

Toru Hosokawa is from Aomori and was able to contact his family.

Tadashi Settsu was worried about his father that works in Sendai.

Yuki Shimooki is from Iwate and was able to contact his family and friends.

Seibu Lions

Yusei Kikuchi is from Iwate and couldn't contact his family and friends yesterday and was able to get in touch with his family.

Takayuki Kishi is from Sendai and was able to contact his parents and sister, but only by e-mail.

Chiba Lotte Marines

Yasuhiko Yabuta, Bill Murphy, Hayden Penn, and an interpreter were on their way back to Tokyo from Akashi, but had to spent the night at Nagoya.

QVC Marine Field appears to be ok, but there seems to be some problems with liquefaction in the parking lots.  The stadium was also apparently closed off to the general public out of concern of land subsidence.

Nippon Ham Fighters

The entire team had the day off yesterday and was staying at a hotel in Gifu (most players were in rooms on or above the 20th or 25th floor (accounts differ based on reports) of a 43 story building.  Atsunori Inaba was soaking in the tub in a hotel room on the 27th floor when the earth quake struck and told reporters he thought he was going to die.

The Fighters were worried about Yuki Saito (1st round) because he didn't reply back to e-mail messages that were sent out by the club's PR department.  It wasn't until 5 hours later that his reply made it back to the Fighters (he probably didn't get the message right away).

The Ni-gun team that was in Yokosuka for a Kyoiku League game against Yokohama, had to spend the night in the Yokohama Stadium player locker rooms because of traffic.  The team left Bay Stars Stadium in Yokosuka at 3:00pm and hit severe traffic.  At around 7:30pm, the team decided to head to Yokohama Stadium out of concern for the players and didn't arrive until 11:40pm.

Orix Buffaloes

Takashi Kamoshida is from Ibaraki and was able to contact his parents -- seems they had to spend the night in their car because their house was a mess.

Fumihiro Suzuki is from Fukushima and his parent's home suffered damage from the quake.  Suzuki couldn't contact his family, but his sister was able to get through and told him that everyone was safe (his mother mother and grandmother were at home but his father was away on a business trip).

Rakuten Eagles

Players like Masahiro Tanaka, Hisashi Iwakuma, Satoshi Nagai, Darrell Rasner, Kenta Satake, Shinya Okamoto were on a Shinkansen heading to Tokyo from Akashi.  They all had to spend the night in Nagoya.

About 80 players, coaches, and staff were at Kleenex Stadium when the earthquake hit and they all gathered in the parking lot outside.  There were some people with a few cuts and bruises, but no major injuries.  By around 7:30pm, all players were able to confirm that their families were safe.  The club was not able to check on the stadium for structural damage yesterday.

About 30-40 people camped out in tents that were set up on the field at Kleenex Stadium.

The Eagles will be giving their player the next two days (12th and 13th) to check on their families.

Kleenex Stadium will be open to people looking to recharge their mobile phones until 9pm today.  The stadium will be open again tomorrow between 9am and 9pm.  Bathrooms on the second floor concourse have also bee opened up.

During yesterday's exhibition games:

At Yokohama Stadium: the game was stopped at 14:47 and called 16 minutes later.  Fans, players, staff...  The field was opened up to everyone at 15:22 for their safety.  3,756 fans were in attendance.  It wasn't until about an hour later that players were able to go to the locker rooms.  FWIW: this was also the day the new turf at the stadium was unveiled.

Sources:

由規、記者席から仙台の家族の無事確認 (Daily Sports)

佑ちゃん無事…発生から５時間後に確認 (Daily Sports)

稲葉、都内ホテルで「死ぬかと思った」 (Daily Sports)

マー君ＨＰで「無事」名古屋で降車 (Daily Sports)

恐怖…悲鳴…横浜球場「助けて～」 (Daily Sports)

揺れるハマスタ…ナインもファンも避難 (Nikkan Sports)

オリ・鴨志田沈痛…茨城の実家に被害 (Daily Sports)

オリックス鈴木捕手、福島の実家が半壊 (Daily Sports)

ソフトＢ移動に影響、メールで安否確認 (Nikkan Sports)

西武菊池、岩手実家と連絡つかず「心配」 (Nikkan Sports)

マリン液状化…ロッテ堀氏の引退試合中止 (Nikkan Sports)

楽天家族優先、安否確認でオープン戦中止 (Nikkan Sports)

オリックス広報の実家被害に (Nikkan Sports)

広島栗原山形の家族とつながらない (Nikkan Sports)

ハム中田地震に恐怖「死ぬかと思った」 (Nikkan Sports)

Ｋスタ宮城グラウンドにテント張り市民避難 (Sanspo)

試合中止の２日間の行動を選手に一任 (Sanspo)

日本ハム２軍帰れずハマスタロッカー１泊 (Sanspo)

Ｇ・東野ヒヤリ、室内練習場階段にヒビ (Sanspo)

広島・栗原、会沢家族の無事を確認 (Daily Sports)

【中日】秋田出身・落合監督も絶句 (Nikkan Sports)

【西武】仙台出身の岸「試合どころじゃ」 (Nikkan Sports)

西武・岸と雄星、実家の無事を確認 (Sanspo)

Ｋスタ宮城で携帯電話充電できます (Daily Sports)

中日ブランコ　シャワー中飛び出した (Nikkan Sports)

横浜・三浦帰宅できずハマスタで夜を明かす (Daily Sports)

巨人・鈴木、地元・福島の被害に言葉失う (Sanspo)

ロッテがＯＰ戦中止、球場周辺で液状化現象 (Sanspo)

This post will be updated throughout the day.

===== 2/18 @ 11:24pm

Miura faced Yoshitomo Tsutsugo and Yuki Yoshimura during his outing as a BP pitcher today.  He also threw only fastballs and curves and surrendgered 3 shots over the wall.

===== 2/18 @ 8:45pm

Daisuke Miura and Brent Leach tossed some BP today -- Miura threw 49 pitches and Leach 48 pitches (23 of which were balls).

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Sledge hit 6 balls over the fence during BP today.

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Miura and OF / base-running coach Osamu Yonemura were the butt of team coordinator's (マネジャー) Mikinori Hachiuma's joke today.  Before practice, Hachiuma made the following announcement to all the players:

This will quickly become a problem for the team [if you guys keep sending these kinds of things] to the cleaners.  Please take care [of these types of items] on your own.

He then produced two ladies' underwear with the names Miura and Yonemura written on them.  Seems the prank was pulled in order to ease some of the strain from practicing.

===== 2/18 @ 4:26pm

Takao Obana was high on the intra-squad game outings made by the three rookies yesterday: Kisho Kagami (2nd round), Hiroshi Kobayashi (4th round), and Shinji Ohara (5th round) all tossed 2 shutout innings.

Obana - "All three of them were good.  They're making me want to pitch them against other teams [to see how they'll do]. ... I'd like to call them up to Ichi-gun, but there is a problem with the number of people [we have up here right now]."

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Terrmel Sledge dropped about 6kg during the off-season.  And while he was supposed to start his workouts today, he managed to squeeze in some BP and running yesterday evening.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

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Today's intra-squad practice game:

The white beat the reds, 4-3 (6 inning game).

Shingo Takeyama was the starting catcher for the reds and batted 7th.  He hit a homer in the 2nd inning with a runner on third and 1 out.

Sho Aranami (3rd round) started in center and batted lead-off.  He started the game with a triple to right-center in his first at bat and came around to score a sac fly by Yuki Yoshimura.

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Daisuke Miura threw 155 pitches in the bullpen today (including his off-speeds, like the curve, slider, fork, and shuto).  He told reporters he wasn't planning on throwing so many pitches, but ended up doing so because he was taking his time checking on each of his pitches.  Miura also had someone stand in the batter's box partway through the session.

Miura is currently scheduled to make an appearance during situational BP tomorrow.