...Yasutomo Kubo was supposed to start the rained out game on Wednesday.  Kubo will now likely pitch in Saturday's against the Yokohama Bay Stars.

...Akihiro Yano will be starting behind the plate for the Hanshin Tigers on Thursday against the Orix Buffaloes.  It'll be his first start this year.  Casey Fossum will be on the mound.

...Minoru Iwata threw 101 pitches in the bullpen on Wednesday at Naruohama.  He's still set for an Ikusei League game start on the 14th against the Chunichi Dragons.  Due to the cold weather, Iwata apparently thought about cutting the bullpen short after 50-70 pitches, but was able to keep throwing.  He threw a lot of fastballs over his first 30 or so pitches.  After that, he had Yuhei Kai stand in the batter's box and he started mixing in his other pitches (curve, slider, fork, cutter, two-seamer).

...Yuya Ando worked out for about 2 hours on Wednesday.  His training included playing catch and some running.  Ando will likely start an exhibition game on the 14th against the Yomiuri Giants.  He also plans on throwing the new change he's been working on against the Giants.

...Both Kazuhito Futagami and Tatsuya Kojima will likely pitch on Friday against the Hiroshima Carp.  The Tigers appear to be leaning towards using the game on Friday as a measuring stick to see who belongs.

...Ando, Atsushi Noumi, Kubo, and Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi will likely be in the starting rotation.  Casey Fossum probably has a spot as well.  Minoru Iwata will likely have a spot as well.

...After some tee-batting on Wednesday, Matt Murton took 62 swings in the cages.  After speaking to batting coach Yutaka Wada for about 30 minutes, he did some more tee-batting and then spent 45 minutes taking swings against a BP machine that throws curves.

=== 3/11/2010 12:42am JST

...Takashi Toritani is 7-for-18 with 4 RBIs over 6 exhibition games.  Against left-handed pitchers, he's 3-for-9.

...Matt Murton does not have a hit in 11 straight trips to the plate.  On Wednesday, he spent time working with batting coach Yutaka Wada (according to Nikkan Sports, about 30 minutes).

=== 3/10/2010 12:37pm JST

...The first base ump was apparently surprised by a play Kenji Johjima made in the 6th against the Nippon Ham Fighters on Tuesday.  With Yoshio Itoi on third and 1 out, Sho Nakata hit a grounder to Takashi Toritani.  Toritani saw Itoi running and threw home.  Johjima tagged Itoi out and noticed that he still had a shot at a play at first and threw over.  Nakata ended up being safe, but the first base ump wasn't expecting Johjima to make a throw to first.

...Sanspo notes that Hirotaka Egusa threw a pitch side-arm during a game against the Nippon Ham Fighters on Tuesday.  The pitch came on a 1-2 pitch against Tomochika Tsuboi in the 7th with a runner on second and 2 outs.

...Tatsuya Kojima gave up a run on 3 hits over two innings of work against the Nippon Ham Fighters on Tuesday.  He told reporters that he was leaving his pitches up in the zone and had to work on keeping them down more.  Pitching coach Yasuo Kubo said that they'll continue working with Kojima so that they can use him at Ichi-gun.

...Kyuji Fujikawa told reporters that he was fully satisfied with his outing against the Nippon Ham Fighters on the Tuesday.  He said he was able to get ahead in the count with his fastball and that his fork was sinking.  Fujikawa will likely pitch again on the 11th against the Orix Buffaloes.

...Toritani went 3-for-4 against the Nippon Ham Fighters on Wednesday.  He also swung at the first pitch in each of his at bats.

...Pitching coach Takashi Yamaguchi told reporters that Randy Messenger still needs to work on how to effectively pitch to Japanese hitters.  He also said he knew Messenger had the ability and wasn't too concerned.

...Minoru Iwata will be making an appearance in an Ikusei League game on the 14th against the Chunichi Dragons.  The decision was made on Tuesday and it seems he'll go about 3 innings.

...Seems Johjima is having Nike work on a new design for catching gear that he'll be using on the road.  Something that's a little flashier than what he's using right now.

...Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi has been working on a slow curve (since Spring camp) that tops out in the 90km/h range.

...Nikkan Sports seems to be throwing a caution flag on Takahiro Arai's back pain.  While the chief trainer Taizo Tsunekawa told reporters on Tuesday that he won't need a hospital visit, Nikkan Sports is worried that it could potentially keep him from being ready for the start of the regular season.  And if not that, become a possible problem during the season.

...The Tigers are adopting a new method of grading their Ikusei players (as of 3/9 they have ten), which includes keeping information about individual players in list format so that it's easier to read.

=== 3/10/2010 12:52am JST

...Asahi Beer will be selling 26 new food / drink sets this year at Koshien Stadium, beginning with the exhibition game on the 13th.  The new sets will be available at the restaurants located in the stadium.

One of the news sets they're selling is priced at 1,200 yen and is served in a bat or base, both which can be used to cheer on the team once your done eating.

...Keisuke Mizuta was sent down to Ni-gun for rehab-training.

=== 8:42pm JST

...Takahiro Arai was held out of the line-up on Tuesday with lower back pain.

Keisuke Mizuta will also be out for 10-14 days after spraining his left ankle on the 7th during practice.

...Akihiro Yano played in his first game this year on Tuesday against the Nippon Ham Fighters: he was the starting DH batting 6th.  Yano went 0-for-2 with two strike outs in the game.  Moving forward, he will be the starting catcher on the 11th against the Orix Buffaloes.

...Nikkan Sports' Hanshin Tigers Archive Special goes on sale for 200 yen on 3/12.  It will be in magazine format and run 32 pages long.  The theme for this version will be on Tigers' managers.

=== 3/9/2010 12:36pm JST

...It seems the Hanshin Tigers will be keeping Casey Fossum tucked away from the Yomiuri Giants during the exhibition games.  They want to "save" him for the regular season when they meet for three games at Koshien beginning on 4/6 and three games at Tokyo Dome beginning on 4/13.

...Mitsunobu Takahashi and Takahiro Shoda were promoted to Ichi-gun on Monday; they will be joining the team on Tuesday.

...Yasutomo Kubo took part in workouts on Monday at the indoor training facilities at Koshien.  He played some catch, ran some sprints, and also took some swings in the cages.

...Naoto Tsuru is starting Tuesday's Ikusei League game against the Hiroshima Carp.  Tsuru tossed 5-shutout inning during his last outing against the Orix Buffaloes on the 3rd.  Ni-gun pitching coach Kiyooki Nakanishi wasn't entirely impressed, telling reporters that there wasn't enough variation in the placement of his pitches.

Naohisa Sugiyama will get the start on Wednesday and Takumi Akiyama will be making his first "pro" start on the Thursday.  All three Ikusei League games are against the Hiroshima Carp.

...Kazuhito Futagami will likely get to pitch on either the 13th (vs the Yokohama Bay Stars) or the 14th (vs the Yomiuri Giants).  Whether he makes the opening day starting rotation will hinge on how well he pitches in his last outing prior to the regular season.

...Kyuji Fujikawa will begin making appearances at a pace of about once every other day beginning with the game against the Nippon Ham Fighters on Tuesday.  On Sunday, Fujikawa threw 40 pitches in the bullpen.

Randy Messenger is also set to pitch on Tuesday.

...Matt Murton spent time with his wife on his day off on Monday.  He will play Tuesday's game against the Nippon Ham Fighters, but may not be playing against the Yomiuri Giants on the 10th.  After that, Murton will likely play in all the remaining exhibition games on the schedule.

...Takashi Toritani's promise to Sanspo: to record double-digit steals this season.  Amongst some of his options were 1,000 hits (he needs 169 more), winning the Golden Glove, or playing in every inning of every game.

...Mizuno has purchased the naming rights to a section within the Koshien Stadium grounds.  The 600 square meter (6,458 square foot) area will be called Mizuno Square.  The contract is for 5 years (expires in February 2015) and will go into effect on March 13th.

Mizuno plans on holding various events at Mizuno Square, like mini classes on how bats and gloves are made (on weekends during the regular season), soft toss BP clinics, and throwing to a speed gun.

=== 3/9/2010 1:48am JST

...Matt Murton has been working on gathering as much information as he can (by going over videos of pitchers and speaking to the coaches) on Central League teams during the last few weeks so that he'll be ready for the regular season.  Exhibition games against other teams in the Central League begin on the 10th with the Yomiuri Giants.  After that they'll have two more games against Pacific League teams with the rest all against Central League teams.

=== 4:02pm JST

...Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi gets the start against the Nippon Ham Fighters on the 9th.  Tatsuya Kojima, Randy Messenger, and Kyuji Fujikawa are all scheduled to make an appearances in relief.  Yasutomo Kubo will likely pitch against the Yomiui Giants on the 10th.  Casey Fossum will likely get the start against the Orix Buffaloes on the 11th.

Pitching coach Takashi Yamaguchi told reporters that due to the schedule, most starters will likely see about three innings of work, supplemented by 50 pitches in the bullpen.

=== 3/8/2010 12:48pm JST

...After throwing 23 pitches in the bullpen on Sunday, Minoru Iwata threw 47 pitches during BP while facing Yuhei Kai and Kosei Fujii.  Daily Sports reports that the BP was more like a simulate game where he faced 13 batters and gave-up 5 could-be hits.  He was also originally scheduled to face just 9 batters.

Iwata will now throw 100+ pitches at some point this week in preparation for a start during an Ikusei League game on the 13th or 14th.  Pitching coach Yasuo Kubo told reporters that there are 7-8 pitches vying for a spot in the rotation and that Iwata was one of them.

...Tomoyuki Kubota has been working his way back from some right shoulder tightness.  On Sunday he pitched in his first exhibition game and threw a scoreless inning inning in relief -- he faced three batters, threw 10 pitches, struck out one, and topped out at 146km/h.  Kubota also threw a change that he's been working on (since Spring camp in 2008), one that comes in low in the 120km/h range.

...Yuya Ando will likely pitch on the 14th against the Yomiuri Giants and the 20th against the Hiroshima Carp.  On Sunday he started and threw three perfect innings -- 9 batters, 36 pitches, 4 strike outs.  Ando also threw about 10 change-ups during his outing.

...Kenji Johjima doesn't plan on changing his approach when the team faces the Yokohama Bay Stars on opening day.  The reason why something like this even comes up is because Takao Obana and Johjima were both on the same Daiei Hawks (Obana as pitching coach).  Personally, I think it's a non-issue.  Just the media trying to drum up a rivalry.

...The Tigers apparently spent about 100,000 yen on a life-size pose-able figure (stands at 175 cm) that pitchers can use when they're practicing throwing inside pitches.  Kyuji Fujikawa and Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi tried using the figure during their bullpen sessions on Saturday.

...With the game on Saturday rained out, the Tigers now have 12 games left on the schedule (which includes the game on Sunday).

...The Tigers will likely go with three catchers during the regular season: Kenji Johjima, Akihiro Yano, and Keisuke Kano.

...Tatsuya Kojima was another pitcher that was scheduled to pitch on Saturday.  His next outing was pushed back until the 9th when the Tigers play the Nippon Ham Fighters at Kyocera Dome.

...Shinjiro Hiyama spent time working on his hitting on Saturday.  He'll likely see some action sometime on or after the 9th.  Yano may also begin to see some playing time on the 9th as well.

...Casey Fossum worked out in the bullpen on Saturday with pitching coach Takashi Yamaguchi watching over him.  Fossum also spent some time working on his pick-off motion.  Yamaguchi told reporters that his next outing will likely be on the 10th against the Yomiuri Giants.

...Because of the rain, Minoru Iwata's BP session was canceled on Saturday.  He instead threw 44 pitches in a bullpen session.  Iwata also managed to mix in his curve and slider for the first time since hurting his left elbow.  He also had Yuhei Kai stand in the batter's box during 30 of the 44 pitches he threw.

If the weather is ok on Sunday, Iwata will throw BP.  Otherwise it will be another bullpen session for him.  He will also likely start an Ikusei League game on the 13th or 14th.

...Akinobu Mayumi spent about 30 minutes talking to Matt Murton about hitting on Saturday.

...Kenichi Tagami worked on his fundamental skills under the direct supervision of of fielding / base-running coach Koji Yamawaki on Saturday.

...Johjima's Tigers' promise with Sanspo: to win a battery award with one of the pitchers on the staff.

=== 3/7/2010 1:18am JST

...The Tigers proceeded to Mascot Stadium to hold indoor workouts when they found out that Saturday's game at Surpass Stadium was canceled.  Akinobu Mayumi told reporters that he plans on having Atsushi Noumi (Saturday's scheduled starter) pitch on Sunday.  Kazuhito Futagmi was also set to pitch on Saturday but now word on whether or not that will carry over to Sunday.

=== 3/6/2010 2:32pm JST

...Kenji Johjima returned to Osaka on the 5th to continue in his training.  He will rejoin the team on the 9th when they play a game against the Nippon Ham Fighters at Kyocera Dome.  Johjima told reporters that moving forward, he needs a chance to work with the relievers.  As such, he'll likely begin playing in exhibition games as a replacement player instead of as a starter.

...Akinobu Mayumi is hoping to get off to a strong start in 2010.  They have 9 games before playing the Yomiuri Giants once the regular season starts.  Mayumi would like to see his team win as many, if not all, of the 9 games so that they'll have a nice comfy league (in April no less) when they play the Giants.

...Minoru Iwata kept his training light on the Friday.  He is scheduled to face 3 batters and throw 40-50 pitches during BP on Saturday.  Iwata is also supposed to throw about 100 pitches during a bullpen session on Sunday.

...It seems Kazuhito Futagami only threw 35 pitches (not 61) in the bullpen on Friday.

...Kazuhito Futagami will likely make an appearance in relief against the Seibu Lions on Saturday.  On Friday, he threw 61 pitches in the bullpen.

...Tatsuya Kojima will likely throw about three innings against the Seibu Lions on Sunday; he threw 64 pitches with Akihiro Yano as his bullpen catcher.

...Masashi Nohara picked up his first "pro hit" on Thursday against the Nippon Ham Fighters.  He recorded and RBI double off Tomoya Yagi in the 4th inning with a runner on second and 2 out.  With Takahiro Arai set to rejoin the team for their next road trip, Nohara will be sent to Ni-gun.

...Pitching coach Takashi Yamaguchi told reporters on Thursday that if they can't settle on a set system for relievers, they'll likely just go with the hottest hand to bridge the gap between the starters and Kyuji Fujikawa.  They do have a number of options: Randy Messenger and Tomoyuki Kubota from the right and Hirotaka Egusa and Kazuya Tsutsui from the left.

...Minoru Iwata threw 50 pitches in the bullpen at Naruohama on Thursday.  His schedule moving forward: BP on the 6th, about 100 pitches in a bullpen session on the 7th.

...Egusa told reporters after his outing on Thursday that he threw a change-up in a game for the first time in his life.

...Kenji Johjima told reporters that he's regaining the feel for playing on artificial turf.  Out of the 30 clubs in the MLB, only 3 play in stadiums with artificial turf.  In Japan, that number is the opposite: of the 12 clubs in the NPB, only the Tigers and the Hiroshima Carp play on natural grass.

...Yasutomo Kubo threw first ball strikes to 12 of the 14 batters he faced on Thursday.

...Minoru Iwata is scheduled to throw a simulated game at Ni-gun on the 5th.

...Kenji Johjima played in his first exhibition game of the year on Wednesday; he batted fourth and was the starting catcher.  Johjima also picked up his first hit in the 1st inning with a runner on first and 1 out.

...Akinobu Mayumi wants to see Casey Fossum throw a little longer before deciding whether he belongs in the starting rotation.

...Takashi Toritani, Masashi Nohara, and Ryo Asai all went out to dinner (ジンギスカン) on the Tuesday.

=== 3/4/2010 12:17am JST

...Tomoaki Kanemoto and Takahiro Arai aren't with the team Ichi-gun right now.  They are staying in Osaka to continue their training.

...Matt Murton apparently doesn't wear baseball stockings during practice so that he can keep his body cool.  Instead, he wears low-cut socks.

...Kazuhito Futagami told reporters on Monday that he's currently looking for an "out" pitch.  He has a fastball, a curve, a slider, and a fork, but doesn't consider any of them out pitches.  Futagami will likely pick one of the pitches he can already throw and turn that into an out pitch.

...The Tigers will be modifying their Kohien scoreboard to read balls to strikes after the end of the 2010 season.

=== 3/3/2010 11:52am JST

...Players starting in Wednesday's game against the Nippon Ham Fighters:

Matt Murton will be in center and batting lead-off.

Kenji Johjima will be batting 4th and catching.

Casey Fossum will be the starting pitcher.  He'll like go 3-4 innings.

...Yasutomo Kubo will likely be starting Thursday's game against the Nippon Ham Fighters.

...Murton worked out at Koshien Stadium for the first time on Tuesday.  He took some BP and worked on his defense in center field (plays against the wall, checking on wind conditions).  Murton's wife and mother-in-law flew into Japan on the 28th.  Murton's wife will be giving birth to their second child in April (in Japan).

...Shinjiro Hiyama worked out at Koshien Stadium on Tuesday.  He will likely see some playing time either on the 7th (vs the Seibu Lions) or the 9th (vs the Nippon Ham Fighters).  Hiyama got a late start at Spring camp due to conjunctivitis in his right eye.

...Takashi Toritani took some BP and worked on his fielding at Koshien Stadium on Tuesday.

...The team traveled up to Sapporo after practice on Tuesday.  Craig Brazell will likely return to Osaka after the two game series against the Fighters in order to continue his workouts at Koshien Stadium.

...Minoru Iwata held a bullpen session at Naruohama and threw 31 pitches to a squatting catcher.  He did not throw any off-speed pitches.  If he continues at his current pace, he could pitch in a simulated game by the 5th or 6th, move onto an appearance at an Ikusei League game on the 13th or 14th, and could very well be ready to pitch in an exhibition game against the Hiroshima Carp on the 20th or 21st (final exhibition series).

=== 3/3/2010 1:05am JST

...Kenji Johjima worked out at Koshien Stadium for the first time since joining the team on Tuesday.  He told reporters he almost headed to the visitor's locker room when he arrived at the park.

Johjima took 49 swings during BP and hit 3 over the fence.  He also spent some time fielding grounders near third and shagging hits in right during BP.

=== 3/2/2010 2:16pm JST

...The Tigers visited Hirota Shrine on Tuesday to pray for a successful season.

...The battle of the opening day starter candidates: Atsushi Noumi will start a game against the Seibu Lions on the 6th and Yuya Ando will start a game against the Seibu Lions on the 7th.

...Tigers owner Shinya Sakai told reporters on Monday that Takashi Toritani has been doing a good job leading the team as the new player rep and that he had no complaints with his performance so far.

Toritani took the entire day off on Monday for some R&R.

...Hirokazu Shiranita is hoping to hit 150km/h at some point.  His current high is 148km/h.

...Kenji Johjima doesn't want any music played while he steps to the batter's box.  Johjima didn't have any music when he played for the Hawks and the music that played when he was with Seattle was selected by the team.  It'll be the first time since 2000 that a Hanshin player didn't have any batter walk-up music (the year they started implementing batter walk-ups; music for pitchers began in 1999).

Sanspo briefly mentions the story of how MLB on FOX's theme song ended up being Johijma's "anger theme" back in 2006 when Josh Barfield bowled over Johjima.

...Matt Murton selected Kutless' Strong Tower for his batter walk-up.