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There is a good chance Yuichi Honda could end up batting lead-off for the Hawks this season.

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Seiichi Uchikawa has been testing a Pete Rose model bat made by Mizuno that is one inch longer longer than his other bat (33.5 to 34.5).

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Kazuyuki Hoashi tossed a bullpen session after his outing on Sunday against the Chiba Lotte Marines because he was not satisfied with how he pitched.

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Hiroshi Shibahara was tossed into the air eight times during his post-game retirement ceremony on Sunday.

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The Group A Hawks closed out their spring camp in Miyazaki today.  The Group B Hawks will close out their spring camp on Thursday.

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The Hawks announced today that they will be holding a retirement ceremony for Hiroshi Shibahara after an exhibition game against the Chiba Lotte Marines on March 4.

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The Hawks officially announced that they extended their uniform sponsorship deal with Everlife today.  Also noted was a change in the logo design from Kojun to Sense of Eternity.  Seiichi Uchikawa and Tadashi Settsu were on hand at the press conference modeling the uniforms with the new Everlife logos.

The Softbank Hawks announced today that 37-year-old Hiroshi Shibahara will retire at the end of the season and plans on taking on work as a baseball analyst.  Shibahara also hopes to return to baseball as a coach at some point in the future.

A press conference is scheduled for November 9.

Career Stats

Hiroshi Shibahara informed the press today that he rescinded his salary arbitration request after his agent managed to work out a deal with the Softbank Hawks.  No word on the terms, but it does appear to be a 1-year deal.

UPDATE 7:57pm - The 1-year deal is worth 62.4M yen plus incentives (48% cut over last season).  And according to Sanspo, his incentives are as follows: the final contract will be worth 60% of his 2010 salary if he puts up numbers similar to his first year; 65% if he puts up stats similar to last season; and 100% if he has a career year.

To quickly recap, Shibahara made 120M yen last season and was initially offered a 42M yen salary.  The Hawks bumped their offer up to 50M yen for the second round of meetings, but Shibahara still wasn't satisfied and decided to file for salary arbitration.

UPDATE 1/18 @ 2:34pm - Team director Itaru Kobayashi told reporters that in order to make sure negotiations went smoothly, both sides thought less about who was right / wrong and more about how to fill the gap between what the team wanted to pay and what Shibahara wanted.

NPB commissioner Ryozo Kato told reporters today that they decided to accept Hideaki Wakui's (SEI) request for salary arbitration (backdated to the 13th).  He also said that he put Hiroshi Shibahara's (SOF) request on hold.

The salary arbitration committee (made up of 3 people, including Katsuhiko Mazaki, NPB advisor to the commissioner) will now sit down with both sides on the 21st and determine what the appropriate salary is for Wakui.

Regarding Shibahara's request, Kato told reporters that it was a matter of first determining if Shibahara ever accepted the pay cut and that he wanted detailed information, in writing, about their discussions by the 20th.  Shibahara, through his agent, told reporters that he never accepted the pay cut.  The Hawks responded by saying that they will provide the commissioner with as detailed a report as possible.

UPDATE 1/15 @ 12:01pm - Shibahara and the Hawks will apparently meet today to go over their notes in preparation for the reports they need to submit to the commissioner's office.

Hiroshi Shibahara filed for salary arbitration today (via his agent).  NPB commissioner Ryozo Kato will read through the application and decide on whether or not to accept the request for salary arbitration.

Koji Akiyama took off for Guam today.

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Speaking at a Kyushu Kyoritsu University supporters gathering on Saturday, Hidenori Tanoue said that he didn't plan on being friendly with Toru Hosokawa and that he had no intention of losing the starting job to him.

"I don't really feel up to being friendly," so Tanoue.  "I need to beat out Hosokawa in order to get into the games.  If you were to ask me if I think he's a great player, then I'd say not so much.  I've seen him play.  If it's just about throwing, then I'll probably lose, but overall, I think I have him beat."

He added, "I'm frustrated / disappointed that they went out and got [a catcher] even though we took first place.  It's embarrassing. ... I need to improve my fielding and throwing, otherwise it won't be enough.  But I'll also need to hit, otherwise I won't have a chance.  Especially because that's what defines me as a player."

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Nagisa Arakaki is hoping to toss a bullpen session the first day of spring camp.  Arakaki will be taking off for training in Hawaii on the 13th and depending on how his shoulder is feeling, might also be able to toss a bullpen then.  In November, Arakaki was throwing in the bullpen at a pace of about once every other day.

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Hiroshi Shibahara told reporters that his decision to go to arbitration wasn't so much about the money, as it was about not wanting to set a precedent he felt would undermine player rights.  He also felt it was his duty as a veteran player to stand up and make sure younger players didn't get treated the same way.

Shibahara will be moving his workouts to Tokyo on the 10th.

Hiroshi Shibahara met with the Softbank Hawks for a second round of salary negotiations today and could not agree to terms with club.  Shibahara has apparently file for arbitration sometime next week.  He will become the first player (7th overall) since Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi filed for arbitration in 2001.

The Softbank Hawks latest offer to Shibahara was a salary of 50M yen, up 8M yen from their initial offer, but still down 70M yen from last season.  According to the agreement between the NPB and the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association, any player that made more than 100M yen must agree to any pay cut greater than 40%.  In this case, the cut would be about 58%, well above the 40% limit.

Said Shibahara, "I just don't get it.  But instead of allowing this to get out of hand, I thought I would file for arbitration [and let my lawyer handle the rest] while I focus on my training."

Toshiya Sugiuchi was apparently very upset that the Softbank Hawks brought out an audio recorder during his negotiations yesterday.

Said Sugiuchi, "It felt like I was being interrogated.  There was a difference in opinion.  More than the gap running deep, it's running pretty wide."

He also added, "How to explain my reasons for putting their offer on hold...  It's everything.  I wasn't even sure if I want to do this press conference.  I'm not satisfied with the offer and I don't feel any sincerity.  What should I do.  I might just go ahead and saying everything I'm thinking."

And it seems Sugiuchi isn't the only one dissatisfied with how negotiations have been going.  And similar to Sugiuchi, it has more to do than just the money.

Hiroshi Shibahara met with the Hawks today and placed a 42M yen (down 78M yen) offer on hold.  It seems Shibahara wasn't quite as upset about the amount as he was with the manner in which the negotiations took place (although he obviously wasn't happy about a 65% reduction in salary).

"He was leafing through a player directory during our negotiations.  I even asked what he was doing and whether or not he had to do that now.  This isn't the type of environment negotiations should take place in," said Shibahara.

The common denominator in both negotiations is chief of player development Itaru Kobayashi -- it was Kobayashi that brought out the audio recorder during Sugiuchi's negotiations and it was Kobayashi that was leafing through a player directory during Shibahara's negotiations.

Tsuyoshi Wada and Hiroki Kokubo also met with the Hawks today and both agreed to salaries for the 2011 season -- Wada for 330M yen (up 120M yen) and Kokubo for 300M yen (no change).

Wada returned to Japan on the Friday (12/10) after he flew out to the Arizona on 11/29 to learn some new training exercises (he also managed to gain 3kg and now weighs 80kg).

In other team news:

Nobuhiko Matsunaka left for Guam via Fukuoka airport on Friday for his first round of winter training.  Matsunaka is planning on adding more that 20 different kinds of running exercises as he works out in Guam through to the 17th.