Ryo Hijirisawa returned to the team today.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/21/2013

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Andruw Jones left the team today to begin his workouts with WBC Netherlands.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/21/2013

Masahiro Tanaka has thrown 321 pitches over five bullpen sessions since the start of spring camp (as of Monday).

Source: Sanspo 2/12/2013

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Satoshi Nagai has thrown over 450 pitches in six bullpen session since the start of spring camp (as of Monday).

Source: Sports Hochi 2/12/2013

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Senichi Hoshino presented Ryo Hijirisawa with a wristwatch (valued at 650,000 yen) last year for leading the league in steals.  During morning shout-outs today, Hijirisawa said he was going to do his best to win another expensive watch this year.

Source: Sanspo 2/12/2013

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Samurai Japan: Conditioning coach Minoru Kumahara will be traveling with Masahiro Tanaka, Ryo Hijirisawa, and Kazuo Matsui to WBC mini-camp.  The team wants Kumahara to watch over Tanaka.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/12/2013

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The Eagles were not allowed to leave the team hotel until 6:30pm today because of tsunami warnings.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/6/2013

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Ryo Hijirisawa ran a thirty meter in 4.08 seconds on Tuesday.  Hijirisawa wants to get that under four seconds (his best time is 3.95 seconds).

Source: Sanspo 2/6/2013

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Masahiro Tanaka has tossed 202 pitches over his first four bullpen sessions.

Source: Sanspo 2/6/2013

The Texas Rangers have reportedly been checking on Tanaka during spring camp.

Source: Sponichi 2/6/2013

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Shintaro Masuda was assigned to Ni-gun spring camp because he hurt his right knee late in the season last year.  Masuda does not have any problems swinging the bat, but is still a little worried about running the bases.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/6/2013

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Yoshinao Kamata could get a shot at the opening day start, depending on how things go with Masahiro Tanaka during the World Baseball Classic.

Kamata has been working on his curve this winter (has more vertical movement).

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/6/2013

Ryo Hijirisawa worked out at Kleenex Stadium on Saturday.  Hijirisawa has his sights set on 60 stolen bases this year (he stole 52 last year) and realizes he needs to get on base by becoming more selective at the plate.

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The Eagles held a meeting at a hotel in Sendai on Saturday.  About 53 members of the organization (coaches, front office personnel) attended the meeting.

The team slogan for 2012 was decided: Ｓｍａｒｔ＆Ｓｐｉｒｉｔ　２０１２　ともに、前へ。 (or Smart & Spirit 2012, together, we move forward.)

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Head coach Koichi Tabuchi checked on players working out at Kleenex Stadium on Saturday.

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Kohei Hasebe worked out for about four hours at Kleenex Stadium on Friday.

Hasebe's father passed away on the January 16.  Memorial services were held on January 18.  Hasebe returned to Sendai on January 19.

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The Eagles held early morning workouts that started at 7am and position players were pushed to swing the bat 2,000 times a day during fall camp.  On Friday, Senichi Hoshino told reporters that workout schedules were only about half of what he wanted (back in his time, people worked out so hard, they threw up).  He also said that he wanted to focus on hitting during the first half of spring camp with Hiromoto Okubo in charge of putting together the hitting workouts.

The media presented Hoshino with a birthday cake on Saturday, one day before his 65th birthday.

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The 2011 draft class made appearances at a gathering for the Sendai City Sports Council Meeting on Friday.

Softbank Hawks

Nagisa Arakaki took the mound yesterday for the first time since 5/9/2009 (at least in terms of facing an Ichi-gun opponent).  Arakaki next outing will likely be during an Ikusei League game on either the 12th or 13th.

Seibu Lions

Hideto Asamura has now hit safely in 6 straight exhibition games.  He is now 11-for-24 with 2 HR, 6 R, 7 RBI, and 21 TB.

Nippon Ham Fighters

Sho Nakata has been held hitless over his last two games (0-for-8) and is also hitless in his last 10 trips to the plate (going back to 3/3).

Orix Buffaloes

The Buffaloes worked out at Kyocera Dome today for the first time this season.  The turf at the dome was replaced during the off-season this year (the last time it was changed was back in 10/2003).

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Seung-Yeop Lee and Takahiro Okada both went yard in yesterday's game against the Chunichi Dragons.

Rakuten Eagles

Ryo Hijirisawa collected his second multi-hit game in a row yesterday.  Hijirisawa struggled early on, going just 3-for-20 in 6 spring games last month.  At one point, he even thought he might not be ready for the start of the regular season, but he turned to old footage of his hits from last season and then got some advice from Daisuke Kusano that helped put everything back into order.  Kusano's advice: don't let the pitchers dictate the at bat, relax and swing through with ease.

Akinori Iwamura feels the Rakuten Eagles are the team everyone should keep their eye on next season, not the Nippon Ham Fighters.  He also stressed again that he'll be more than happy to give younger players advice if they ask for it.

On Saturday, Iwamura took part in a baseball clinic in Tokyo that lasted about 3 hours.

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Katsuya Nomura and his stepson Don Nomura sat down to record a video version of Katsuya Nomura's book Nomura's Thoughts for Fuji TV on the 18th.  The two spoke for over 4 hours on the topic of baseball and life.  The program will be broadcast in three segments on Fuji TV One (a CS channel) between January and March.  The program will also be available on DVD after the original broadcasts.

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26-year-old Satoshi Nagai and 26-year-old former model Mami Kitani held their wedding ceremony in Yokohama on Saturday.  Players like Masahiro Tanaka and Naoto Watanabe attended the ceremony.

Kitani is currently 4 months pregnant.

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Ryo Hijirisawa's wife gave birth to the couple's first child, a healthy boy, on Friday.

Ryo Hijirisawa has been working on bulking up since the start of October.

"I wanted to see how far I could go this year without do any weight training," said Hijirisawa.  "Now I want to add weights to my training to see how my body changes."

In other team related news...

Teppei is expected to rejoin the Ichi-gun roster on the 20th.  Teppei suffered a fracture in his right pinky toe after an HBP on 9/18 (vs Lotte) and has been rehabbing at Ni-gun every since.  While the fracture has healed, Teppei is still feeling pain in his foot and hasn't been able to run at full speed yet.  He has, however, started taking batting practice.

Alex Cabrera was taken out of last night's game when he injured his left wrist while making a play at first base in the 4th inning.  Ryo Hijirisawa laid down a bunt and was running down the first base line to leg out a single.  Kazuki Kondo fielded the ball and made a throw that was offline.  Cabrera tried to reach over and catch the ball, but Cabrera's glove hit Hijirisawa on the left arm / hand as he ran by, knocking Cabrera's glove off his hand.  That's apparently when Cabrera suffered his injury.

Here's the Youtube video of the play for those interested.

Ryo Hijirisawa went 1-for-5 last night against the Nippon Ham Fighters and extended his hitting streak to 23 games.  Hijirisawa is now just 1 game away from tying the franchise mark of 24 games that was set by Teppei in 2009.