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A 56-year-old woman suffered a fracture in her lumbar vertebrae when Masahiro Tanaka crashed his car into her, she was riding a bicycle, on December 14, 2011.  The incident took place at an intersection that had no traffic light and poor visibility.  Tanaka was on his way to Kleenex Stadium at the time.

Earlier today, Sendai Higashi Police filed charges against Tanaka on suspicion of accidental infliction of injury while driving.

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Early morning practice took place indoors today because of the rain.

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Ikusei pitcher Takahiro Kato told reporters today he could probably throw 2,500 pitches during spring camp.  So far, he has thrown 818 pitches and is not feeling any pain, though he is feeling some stiffness.  Kato did not toss a bullpen session today.

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INF/base-running coach Yasutomo Suzuki hit baseballs to Akinori Iwamura and Kazuo Matsui during extra fielding practice after general workouts on Monday.

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Kelvin Jimenez is apparently Senichi Hoshino's current number three starter.

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1st round draft pick Yoshitaka Muto is scheduled to pitch in an intra-squad game on February 12.

Tanaka is scheduled to pitch in an intra-squad game on February 13.

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Hoshino wants to see the three kids that helped him when he got lost while trying to walk back to the team hotel during spring camp last year.  The team managed to track them down and the three were given a chance to observe players work out at Ichi-gun spring camp today.

Hoshino also told reporters on Monday that he wanted his closer to have starting experience, which could point to Darrell Rasner being the closer this year.  Daisuke Kato and Koji Aoyama are two other possible candidates.

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Akinori Iwamura has been using a 960 gram Nike-made training bat for all his batting practice sessions during spring camp.

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Team chairman Hiroshi Mikitani told reporters on Sunday that he would love to have Hideki Matsui on the team and understands that most likely will not happen because he wants to continue playing in the MLB.

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Takahiro Shiomi is working on a new change-up and screwball.

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Rakuten chairman Hiroshi Mikitani visited the team in Kumejima, Okinawa today.  A team BBQ was held outside of the player hotel.

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4th round draft pick Takero Okajima wears wrist bands weighing 500 grams during fast-paced soft-toss BP (one swing a second).

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Early morning practices begin at 7:30am with about thirty minute of warm-ups.  That is followed by about an hour and half of batting practice.  On Friday, Hiromoto Okubo added "early meetings" to the schedule, right after early morning batting practice.  These meetings will be geared toward helping players go over issues they need to work on.  They will also provide players with an opportunity to meet with a team scout on an individual basis.

Teppei, Akihisa Makida, and Ryo Hijirisawa were the first three players called in for early meetings on Friday (about ten minutes each).

Assuming this goes well, Okubo plans to continue holding these kinds of meetings throughout the course of the season.

Senichi Hoshino was present during early morning practices again today (7am start time).  He also did some jogging along the outfield wall.

Hoshino spent about 20 minutes hitting grounders to pitchers today.

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4th round pick Takero Okajima stayed back and spent sixteen consecutive minutes in the batting cages hitting off-speed pitches (no rest) during his workouts today.

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The Eagles were presented with a number of local items today, including a 20kg yellowfin tuna.

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Keiji Oyama caught Masahiro Tanaka's bullpen session on Wednesday.

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Tanaka has been focusing on weight placement on his back leg during his bullpen sessions -- on Wednesday it took an average 1.87 seconds for his front foot to land after he picked it up during his delivery.  FYI: Yu Darvish taught Tanaka how to use his back leg more efficiently this past winter.

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Kazuo Matsui told reporters after practice on Wednesday that he woke up at 5:20am and was completely beat.  The first day of practices began at 7am and ended at around 4pm.

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Early morning workouts began at 7am.  Many players apparently swung the bat close to 2,000 times.

The first day of spring camp lasted about ten hours: from 7am until around 5pm.

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Senichi Hoshino showed up on the field at around 6:58am.

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Takahiro Shiomi participated in early morning (around 7:20am) calisthenics on the beach.

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The Eagles have set up three home plates in the batting cages: the first, 18.44 meters away from the machine; the second, 14 meters away; and the third, 12 meters away.  The closer the batter gets to the machine, the faster the ball will feel (at 12 meters, pitches will appear to go around 175km/h).

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The Eagles announced today that they will run a one-year softball school in Koriyama, Fukushima for elementary school kids, beginning in April.  This will be in addition to the two schools they will be running in Miyagi.

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Bullpen sessions:

Wednesday

Masahiro Tanaka threw 54 pitches to a standing catcher.

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1st round draft pick Yoshitaka Muto threw 50 pitches.  Motohiro Shima caught the session.

The coaches held a meeting at Kleenex Stadium today to go over spring camp practice schedules.

"I do not know about the foreign players, but everyone at Ichi-gun and Ni-gun will take part in early morning practices (7am)," said head coach Koichi Tabuchi.  "Last year we checked on the strengths of the younger players, this year we will check on strengths that are needed to win.  There will be competitions at multiple positions."

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Ni-gun infield / base-running coach Hitoshi Taneda will be stepping down due to personal reasons.  Ikusei coach Makoto Kosaka will take over for Taneda; no one will be hired to take Kosaka's old role.

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The Eagles held a press conference for Keiji Oyama at Kleenex Stadium today.  He was assigned the number 65.

Oyama is scheduled to attend Ichi-gun spring camp.

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The Eagles will be streaming footage from spring camp at Nico Nico Nama Hoso (from February 1 to February 14).  The first day of spring camp will begin at 7am.

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The coaching staff, front office, and players visited Osaki Hachimangu Shrine today in order to pray for a successful season.

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Luis Terrero [and Darrell Rasner?] arrived at Narita Airport on Sunday.

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Masahiro Tanaka is thinking about changing his intro song.  Tanaka used Funky Monkey Babys' Atohitotsu (あとひとつ) last season.

On Sunday, he told reporters that he was working on making some changes to his pitching mechanics (he avoided going into details).

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Senichi Hoshino would love to sign Hideki Matsui as a clean-up hitting DH.  Hoshino has already expressed his interest to team chairman Hiroshi Mikitani.  While Matsui has continually stated that he does not intend to return to Japan this year, circumstances could change if he does not get any MLB offers.

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Ken Kadokura topped out at 138km/h during his tryout on Sunday.  Head coach Tabuchi and the head of team development watched over his session.  Video footage was also recorded and will be reviewed by Hoshino.

Kadokura  is not ready to retire yet and his first choice is to return to Japan.

Nikkan Sports is reporting that Masahiro Tanaka (23) will be getting married to Mai Satoda (27) and that an announcement is expected.  Tanaka has since posted an announcement of his intentions on his blog.

Tanaka met Satoda during Pro Yakyu All-Star Sports Festival in December 2009 and began dating in 2010.  Later that year, in November, both Tanaka [blog post] and Mai [blog post] admitted that they were seeing each other.

UPDATE @ 8:27pm - The two plan to file marriage papers some time in late March.

UPDATE 1/28 @ 8:40pm - According to updated reports, the two could file marriage papers on either March 29 or March 30.

March 29 - Satoda's birthday.  Falls on Butsumetsu, which symbolizes the day Buddha died and is considered an unlucky day, especially for marrying.

March 30 - Opening day.  Falls on Taian, which is considered the "day of great peace" and would be a good day to get married.  But since it is also opening day, the two would have to file marriage papers in the morning, before the start of the home opener.

Akinori Iwamura worked out at Kleenex Stadium On Wednesday for the first time this year.  Workouts included playing catch, fielding practice, and BP.

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The Eagles announced on Wednesday that Rakuten Eagles Softball School will open in April.

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Masahiro Tanaka worked out with Yu Darvish in Miyazaki for about a week (January 6 - January 12).  He then moved on to working out with some teammates in Chiba (January 13) before returning to Sendai on Monday (January 23).

Tanaka also gained 6kg before dropping 3kg and is now at 97kg.

Tanaka's workouts with Darvish:

9am until noon - running, trunk strengthening exercises
noon until 12:30pm - playing catch
12:30pm until after 2:00pm - after lunch, weight training (flip-flopping between upper and lower body)

protein drinks five times a day.

Sponichi is reporting that Masahiro Tanaka (RAK) may get to start the NPB charity exhibition game against the CPBL on March 10 and go at least three innings.  A separate Sponichi article mentions that Yuki Saito and Sho Nakata will also most likely make the roster.

The NPB will finalize the roster during an executive committee meeting on 1/24 and officially announce the rosters on 1/26.

According to Nikkan Sports, the Chunichi Dragons are apparently willing to wait on Wei-Ying Chen for as long as necessary.

"We have not given [Chen] any deadlines," said chief of team development, Takashi Ide.  "We plan on contacting his agent once before the end of the year."

Nikkan Sports also mentions the Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Washington Nationals as teams interested in Chen.

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Sanspo mentions that the Orix Buffaloes are prepared to give Kei Igawa the number 29.  It is the same number he wore when he played for the Hanshin Tigers and New York Yankees.

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The media has started murmuring about when Masahiro Tanaka will decide he wants to play in the Majors.  News reports this morning say that he mentioned nothing about wanting to play in the Majors during salary negotiations on Monday.  However, when reporters asked Rakuten Eagles team rep Jun Yoneda what would happen if Tanaka wanted to head to the Majors either via posting or through FA, he replied, "This would be assuming [Tanaka] asked, but that is a player right.  But this is not just about Tanaka, this is about all our core players."

In November, Tanaka told Sanspo that making it to the Majors was not his primary goal for playing baseball.

UPDATE 12/28 @ 12:10pm - It appears Sanspo (where the quote was taken from) is getting a little heat from Yoneda because they took some things he said and made it sound as if he was ok about Tanaka heading to the Majors (assuming that was what he wanted).  Yoneda clarified that he never said he was ok with it and that Tanaka was a very important player to the team.

Masahiro Tanaka met with the Rakuten Eagles today and agreed to a salary of 320M yen (up 120M yen).

There are only two other players that were paid 300M yen or more during their sixth season in the pros: Koji Uehara (300M yen) and Yu Darvish (330M yen).

UPDATE 12/27 @ 1:50am - Sanspo is carrying the following comments from Tanaka:

Your thoughts on the team's assessment of your performance.

I have nothing more to add, they said they were pleased with everything.

You won a lot of awards this season.  Your thoughts.

I am happy that I was able to post career numbers.  But I cannot be entirely happy unless the team also does well.  As a baseball player, it made me sad to have to watch the Climax Series and Nippon Series on TV.

As a team from an area that suffered from earthquakes and tsunamis, what did you feel during your interactions with earthquake/tsunami victims/survivors?

They provided me with strength.  I also do not think we can provide them with strength unless we work harder.

Your thoughts on the 2012 season.

We were not able to come through with the kind of season the fans wanted, so I want to raise the bar next season.  Personally, I want to [continue] pitching well in order to maintain my spot in the starting rotation over the course of a year.

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Tanaka's Salary over the years (via Nikkan Sports)