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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.

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If batting coach Hiromoto Okubo could have his way, he would most likely bat Kazuo Matsui forth this year.

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Matsui will be testing a new bat based on the model he used in 2001: 33.5 inches long and around 890 grams.

He was named captain of the team during a team meeting today.

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Keiji Uezono is a candidate for the starting rotation.

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Senichi Hoshino hit a total 223 baseballs during fielding practice for pitchers on Thursday.  Masahiro Tanaka, Takahiro Shiomi, and 1st round draft pick Yoshitaka Muto were part of the group (a total seven pitchers were in the group).

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Norihiro Akahoshi visited Hoshino today.  When reporters asked if he would be interested in hiring Akahoshi as a special instructor, he jokingly replied, "I want to give him a tryout!"  Akahoshi responded, "I am still working out so I am ready to be called up at any time."

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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Softbank Hawks

Koji Akiyama does not want to go near the bullpen early on during spring camp because he does not want pitchers to push themselves too hard by trying to impress him.

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Special hitting instructor Futoshi Nakanishi was hired to help Ni-gun players but Ni-gun manager Kazuo Ogawa told reporters on Tuesday that he could also end up working with Wily Mo Pena.

Nippon Ham Fighters

Sho Nakata does not plan on taking any breaks during spring camp, even on days when the team has the day off.

"I plan to do a little work even on my days off.  When no one else is practicing, that is when I can begin closing the gap," said Nakata.

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The Fighters had an influenza "mini outbreak" back in 2009.  Shota Ono was diagnosed with it on 8/16.  Two days later, Naoki Miyanishi, Terrmel Sledge, and coach Junichi Fukura also had the flu.  On the following day, Tomoya Yagi, Kazumasa Kikuchi, Shinya Tsuruoka, Tomohiro Nioka, Eiichi Koyano, and Yoshio Itoi all showed symptoms.  Against the Rakuten Eagles on 8/20, the Fighters played with just nineteen players (seven pitchers, twelve position players).  Players slowly started coming back after that, but the Fighters lost six in a row between 8/18 and 8/25.

Seibu Lions

The Lions attended a tuna cutting performance on Tuesday at their team hotel -- a 50kg yellowfin tuna was cut and cleaned in front of the team and handed out to the players.

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Enrique Gonzalez wants a shot at starting.

Orix Buffaloes

Akinobu Okada thought Dae-Ho Lee lost 15kg from 130kg when it was actually from 142kg.  That was why he was concerned about Lee losing too much weight.

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Washlets were installed in the bathrooms at Miyakojima Stadium, but there were no electrical outlets in the individual stalls to power them.  Outlets were added in time for the start of spring camp.

Rakuten Eagles

There are about 25 volunteers assisting the Eagles at Kumejima.  Because of early morning practices and some players missing their breakfast meals, a handful have been assigned to deliver meals from the player hotel to the stadium.

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Bullpen sessions:

Wednesday

Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi (trying out for team) threw about 40 pitches (standing catcher) under the watchful eye of Senichi Hoshino.  Hoshino later said to reporters, "He looked good out there.  But one day is not enough."

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.

Hanshin Tigers

Daiki Enokida (1st round) threw 66 pitches in the bullpen today with Kenji Jojima doing the catching.  It was the first time this spring the two were paired up together.

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Tomoaki Kanemoto took fielding practice outdoors (in left) yesterday for the first time this year.  Batting coach Atsushi Kataoka hit about 25 baseballs out to Kanemoto and a "cutoff man" was placed near the shortstop area so that Kanemoto could work on his throws (about 20-25 meters).  And during BP, he swung the bat 56 times.

The Tigers are hoping that Kanemoto will be able to play in a couple of their upcoming home exhibition games (4 games beginning on the 9th).

Yomiuri Giants

Ryosuke Miyaguni (2nd round) and Taichi Tanaka (3rd round) both re-joined the Ni-gun roster for practice today.  The two players left Ni-gun spring camp on 2/27 to return to their homes in order to attend their high school graduations.

Yakult Swallows

Shinya Miyamoto suffered a bruise on his right hand during Wednesday's exhibition game against the Nippon Ham Fighters.  An examination of the hand did not reveal any problems with the bones.  He did not take BP during pre-game practice today and will not be traveling with the team to Fukuoka for 2 games against the Softbank Hawks at Yahoo Dome.

Softbank Hawks

Brian Falkenborg was supposed to pitch tonight, but didn't because he apparently wasn't ready.

Rakuten Eagles

Hisashi Iwakuma is scheduled to start an exhibition game against the Seibu Lions on the 5th.

Senichi Hoshino has had a long tie to Okinawa, going back to his days as a player for the Chunichi Dragons.  And to that end, he'd like to give back to the communities that have supported him by playing one or more regular season games a year in Okinawa.  Preferably Okinawa Cellular Stadium Naha, since they have the appropriate facilities to host a proper a night game.

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The Eagles decided to send Kohei Hasebe, Tadashi Ishimine, and Yusuke Kusuki down to Ni-gun today in order to participate in the Ikusei League.

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The Eagles will be opening up Kleenex Stadium for a public viewing of exhibition games taking place on 3/20 (vs Chunichi at Nagoya Dome) and 3/21 (vs Yomiuri at Tokyo Dome) .  Admission will be free.

The Rakuten Eagles arrived in Sendai today.  They'll hold full workouts at Kleenex Stadium between 3/1 and 3/3.  After that, they hit the road to play 13 exhibition games and won't return to Sendai for about 2 weeks.

Hisashi Iwakuma threw 162 pitches in the bullpen today.  He is scheduled to in an exhibition game on 3/5 against the Seibu Lions.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

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Today's game against the Hanwha Eagles:

The Eagles won the game, 8-4.

Koji Aoyama started the game and gave up 2 runs over 4 innings of work.

The Eagles used 5 hits to score 4 runs in the first inning.

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The Eagles got permission to use the field after their practice game against the Yakult Swallows yesterday.  The Eagles' offense has been struggling to put runs up on the board.  During yesterday's game, they banged out 12 hits, left 10 men on base, and managed to push only 2 runs across the plate.