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The Eagles traveled to Nagasaki today, a couple days in advance of their two game exhibition series against the Yokohama Bay Stars at Nagasaki Big N Stadium on Saturday and Sunday.

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When Senichi Hoshino saw Shinichiro Koyama on the field outdoors doing warm-ups in a short-sleeve shirt, he jokingly said, "I have decided on my opening day starter and it is not [Masahiro] Tanaka!"

Koyama also tossed a bullpen session indoors wearing a short-sleeve shirt and said, "It will be cold on opening day so I wanted to prepare myself for that."

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Hoshino told reporters on Tuesday that he saw 6th round draft pick Hiroaki Shimauchi as a pinch-running "specialist" (fifty meters in 5.8 seconds).  Shimauchi has been working out with the Ichi-gun team since February 25 and has been getting help from OF/base-running coach Atsuhiro Motonishi.

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Hoshino spent over an hour in the bullpen giving pitchers advice on Tuesday.

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The Eagles held indoor workouts in Sendai today because of the cold weather.

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Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi will start an exhibition game against the Yokohama Bay Stars on March 3.

Shimoyanagi rejoined the Ichi-gun team in Sendai today.  His workouts included running, playing catch, long throws, and a bullpen session.

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Shintaro Masuda will be sent down to Ni-gun to get playing time during the Kyoiku League that begins in March.

Most of the Rakuten players and coaches left Okinawa today on an afternoon flight to Sendai.

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Senichi Hoshino expressed his frustration to reporters on Sunday about how none of the pitchers are pitching like they want to be a part of the starting rotation.

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Maashiro Tanaka's next start will likely come against the Yokohama Bay Stars on March 4 (exhibition game).  Including this start, Tanaka will probably get to pitch in three more games before the start of the regular season.

A number of Swallows, including Shinya Miyamoto and Shohei Tateyama, watched Tanaka toss his bullpen session on Sunday.

====== UPDATE 2/28 @ 3:20am

Hoshino is seemingly frustrated that all his players are lacking the motivation to compete against each other for starting positions.  He suggested to reporters that maybe the team should start handing salaries out in envelopes so that players can physically see the financial differences between "regular" players and successful players (it is what apparently got him motivated to play harder when he was younger).

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Masahiro Tanaka tossed a bullpen session after his exhibition game start against the Yakult Swallows was rained out on Sunday.

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Batting coach Hiromoto Okubo on the Eagles heading back to Sendai on Monday, "Spring camp is not over.  Our spring camp will last until about mid-March, when he play some games in Kurashiki."

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The Eagles announced on Saturday that they have sold out their homer opener (March 30) at Kleenex Stadium on the same day they went on sale to the general public and that tickets to the remaining two games of the opening series are running low.

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The Eagles closed out their workouts at Kin Stadium on Saturday.

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6th round draft pick Hiroaki Shimauchi was called up on Saturday and will likely be given a look as a defensive replacement or pinch-runner.

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Takahiro Shiomi tried throwing his screwball during an game exhibition game against the Nippon Ham Fighters on Saturday and found that if he is not careful with it, batters will tee off it.  Said Shiomi, "It is a dangerous pitch when it flattens out.  It becomes a batting practice fastball." 

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Masahiro Tanaka is working on a rising cut fastball.  He threw five of them during his bullpen session on Friday but none of them "rose."

"[Tanaka] threw an amazing pitch the day before yesterday.  It kind of looked like it rose.  Today was ordinary, although they were very nice cut fastballs," said pitching coach Ryoji Moriyama.

Bullpen catcher Kenji Nagasaka caught the one rising pitch Tanaka threw and said, "It was the first time I saw a pitch like that.  Usually, pitches lose some steam by the time they get to the hitter.  And the pitch usually drops diagonally.  But Tanaka's pitch stayed the same speed and moved horizontally.  That is probably why it looked as if it rose."

Tanaka is ultimately looking for an off-speed pitch with some speed and bite that he can throw to left-handed hitters.

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Ginji celebrated his 24th birthday today.

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Everyone around Akihisa Makida is pushing him to become the team's next clean-up hitter, but he apparently is not all that interested.  Or at least it seems he is unsure if he should be the one.

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The Eagles canceled early morning workouts today because of the weather.  This was the first time the team canceled morning practices during spring camp.

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1st round draft pick Yoshitaka Muto is scheduled to start Friday's practice game against Samsung.  Muto did not toss a bullpen session today and instead did some long distance throwing.

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Kelvin Jimenez could make an appearance during an exhibition game against the Nippon Ham Fighters on February 25.

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Kazuhiro Kiyohara visited Kin camp today.

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For the second time in as many days, Senichi Hoshino played catch (about five minutes) with head coach Koichi Tabuchi.  Hoshino is scheduled to throw out a ceremonial first pitch before an exhibition game against the Lotte on March 10.

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Batting coach Hiromoto Okubo likes having a left-handed batter in the two whole in the line-up because he can help mask the runner at first.  And if the number two batter can also hit, even better.

"It is better to have a left-handed number two hitter.  If the lead-off man gets on base, he can block the catcher's view to first, giving the runner a better chance to steal a base.  If the number two batter can also hit for average, he will make the catcher's job that much more difficult.  The chances to score a run go up," said Okubo.

Teppei batted second during Wednesday's game and could end up being the Eagles' number two hitter this year.

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Through Wednesday, Yusuke Kosai is 3-for-8 with a homer and three RBI over three intra-squad games.

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Darrell Rasner is working his way back from a right adductor muscle strain. He tossed a bullpen session at Kin Stadium today.

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Senichi Hoshino played some catch (about twenty throws) with head coach Koichi Tabuchi during morning practice today.  Hoshino also spent some time throwing into a new.

The Eagles announced today that they will be installing a board that counts down the days until opening day near the West Entrance at Sendai Station.  An unveiling ceremony will be held at 11am on February 24.

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Senichi Hoshino is apparently scheduled to throw the ceremonial first pitch on March 10 (exhibition game vs Lotte at Muscat Stadium.  Head coach Koichi Tabuchi will be the catcher.  The reason: to give fans something to look forward to, especially since Masahiro Tanaka will be playing in the charity game at Tokyo Dome the same day.  That means there also will not be a Tanaka vs Yuki Saito match-up the following day on March 11 when the Eagles take on the Nippon Ham Fighters.

The Eagles had the day off today.

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Kohei Hasebe, Tomohiro Tsuchiya, Yasunori Kikuchi, and Yoshitaka Hashimoto worked out on their day off today.  Workouts lasted about an hour and included running and playing catch.

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Masahiro Tanaka has not tossed a bullpen session since Friday.  Pitching coach Yoshinori Sato told reporters on Sunday it made no sense for Tanaka to toss a bullpen session when he was not throwing very well.

====== UPDATE 2/21 @ 1:12am

Senichi Hoshino is sponsoring twenty Tohoku Atsukushio! Seats again this year.