Nikkan Sports reports that Senichi Hoshino feels the current agreement between the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association (JPBPA) and the NPB that prevents teams from contacting senryokugai players from other teams until after the first round of tryouts does nothing but hurt players.

The agreement was apparently created in order to put all senryokugai players on equal footing.  That is, since teams hand out senryokugai notices to players at different times, players that receive their notices early on may end up having a better chance at signing than those that receive their notices toward the end of the senryokugai notification period unless there is a rule in place that prevents all senyokugai players from speaking to teams until a specified date, which in this case is the first round of tryouts.  Hoshino believes otherwise.

While Hoshino does not plan on breaking the current agreement, he feels that competition is part of what it means to be a professional athlete and that too much importance is being place on fairness.  And since teams can give foreign players tryouts and make trades, most rosters are close to being set by the time the first round of tryouts begins.  That in turn puts the senryokugai players in a tough spot.

Case in point: the Eagles were interested in Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi and wanted to give him a multi-day tryout during fall camp.  But because of the agreement, did not.  Instead, they got to see Shimoyanagi face a few batters during the first tryout on the 24th and felt they did not have enough information to go to sign him.

According to Daily Sports, Senichi Hoshino made an appearance on Nippon TV's News Zero on Tuesday night and said he figured that Takeshi Yamasaki joining the Chunichi Dragons was more or less a done deal.  He also said that Alex Ramirez, Tsuyoshi Shimoyangi, and Kei Igawa were not coming to the team.  With regards to Igawa and Ramirez specifically, he added that Igawa still wants to play in the US and if he does return to Japan, it won't be until around March and he had the feeling that Ramirez will probably sign with either Lotte or Yokohama.

The media learned yesterday that they Rakuten Eagles would like to see Senichi Hoshino to return in 2012.  And with Hoshino already making forward-looking comments into the 2012 season, it is expected that an agreement will be reached.

Hoshino signed a one year deal before the start of the season because he wanted to take things one year at time.

UPDATE @ 5:35pm - According to Sponichi, it seems the players were also hesitant/worried about having to deal with another managerial change.  Another Sponichi article notes that an official announcement of Hoshino returning next season could be made some time this month.

UPDATE @ 7:31pm - Team chairman Hiroshi Mikitani and spoke to Hoshino before today's game at Kleenex Stadium.  Mikitani later told reporters that he asked Hoshino to continue managing the team in 2012.

Said Mikitani, "I just spoke to him in his office and asked him to continue [managing the team] next year.  I believe he'll accept this offer."

UPDATE 9/7 @ 8:16am - Hoshino told reporters after the game that he didn't think he'd be able to leave the team in the current condition it was in.

Senichi Hoshino told reporters yesterday that he'd like to play a game at Kleenex Stadium without any drums and without any Oenka (cheer songs).

Hoshino - "Maybe there can be one game a year where the fans can just enjoy a regular game of baseball.  Coming out to the park to cheer for the team can be great, but [without that] you'd really be able to hear the crack the bat and the sound of popping gloves.  That's what's great about the Majors.  I'm thinking about submitting this as a proposal to the club."

The Eagles' appear to be interested in the possibility of playing a game without any drums or Oenka, but they'll first need to speak to their Oendan and the Oendan for the visiting team.

FYI: musical instruments are banned at Kleenex Stadium, but Oendan's are allowed to take charge of the cheers by using a drum.

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.

===

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.

===

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.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

=== 10:16pm

Masahiro Tanaka threw 31 pitches to a squatting catcher today.

===

The decision to try Makida out in right and Teppei out in left was because of Makida's strong arm -- the Eagles like his chances of throwing runners out at third.

Said OF / base-running coach Atsuhiro Motonishi, "We decided it made the most sense to put Makida in right. On top of that, it's always good when pitchers can play multiple positions."

=== 5:01pm

Motohiro Shima stayed back for extra BP after general practice yesterday.  Shima worked on hitting the ball to the opposite field.

=== 11:53am

During situational fielding practice today, Teppei was out in left (from his usual position in right) and Akihisa Makida was in right.  Seems the Eagles are thinking about changing some things up in the OF.

===

Kumejima-cho presented the Hoshino with a number of items today, including a 20kg tuna and free tickets to the spa facilities on the island.

===

Hoshino was satisfied with the first day of camp and was happy that it seemed everyone worked hard during the off-season -- all his pitchers tossed bullpen sessions (not including foreign pitchers) and both Akinori Iwamura and Kazuo Matsui hit balls over the fence during BP.  He did voice concern about players pushing themselves too hard though.  He also spoke of how special it was for him to be putting on a new uniform.

===

A little more on Senichi Hoshino getting lost on his way back to the hotel.  According to reports published today, Hoshino asked the driver to drop him off when they were 3km from the hotel.  The driver misheard Hoshino and dropped him off 3km away from the stadium.

When dropping Hoshino off, the driver told Hoshino to turn right at a gas station.  Unfortunately, there were two gas stations along the road back to the hotel (and wouldn't you know it, the island only has two gas stations) and the driver didn't specify making the turn at the second gas station.

Hoshino treated the kids that helped him back to the hotel with an autographed board, melon bread, rice crackers, and orange juice.  Hoshino later told the media the the MVP for the first day of spring camp was those three kids.

Senichi Hoshino returned to Japan on Tuesday.  He told reporters that he wasn't able to do much while he was in Australia due to the rain (a kids' baseball clinic he was supposed to attend was canceled and he couldn't play any golf) and that he made it a point to stay abreast of the news in Japan (he used an iPad he purchased last year).

Hoshino also added that he thought Kazuo Matsui was physically capable of playing until he was 40 and that he should be preparing to play short this season.

===

Kazuo Matsui has added about 2kg to his frame (he now weighs 85kg) in order to increase his muscle mass.  He also told reporters that he was aiming to do a lot of running on the base paths this season and that he wanted to be in the starting line-up everyday.

===

Shinichiro Koyama is apparently using an MLB baseball in his training after he found out that Hisashi Iwakuma did the same last year and found it to be helpful.  He's also hoping it'll help him get used to pitching with the new NPB regulation baseball as well.

===

Akinori Iwamura, on the other hand, is working on losing some weight.  He also had some problems getting on the plane to Okinawa yesterday because his luggage first came up as being over the weight limit, even though it wasn't.  And while he was trying to get that settled, his flight took off.  Iwamura was initially hoping to start his training in Okinawa on 1/11 at 1:11pm, but gave up and decided to start things today (when all was said in done, Iwamura ended up arriving in Okinawa at 4:30pm).

The other three players in Iwamura's group, Yusuke Kajimoto (ORI), Wataru Nishimura (RAK), and Naoya Washiya (BC League), started their workouts at Kochinda Stadium without Iwamura on the 11th.

===

Hisashi Kitani tossed about 30 pitches (while mixing in off-speed pitches) in the bullpen on Tuesday.  Kitani started his training up on the 3rd at his old high school (Omi High School in Shiga).

===

Horipro announced that they signed Masahiro Tanaka to a management contract today.  Horipro will be handling all of Tanaka's non-baseball related events, like his off-season TV appearance schedule.  Horipro also recently signed a similar contract with Yusei Kikuchi.

Senichi Hoshino apparently wants to win around 80 games this season.

"If you aim for an A Class finish, you'll end up a B Class team," said Hoshino.  "If you aim for a championship, you'll also learn to be introspective.  It makes me happy to hear the players talking about a championship."

He continued, "I used to use the number 77 for all my goals -- my golf score, my weight.  I even made it my goal to win 77 games during the season. ... But there are more games now, so 80 is now my goal."

If the Eagles manage to win 81 games this season, that'll give Hoshino an even 1,000 career victories as a manager.  Hoshino also turns 64 on 1/22.

===

Akinori Iwamura is planning on changing the color of his equipment (things like his glove and training wear) to match the Rakuten Eagles' crimson red team color.

===

Masahiro Tanaka made an appearance on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen last night.

===

Hisashi Iwakuma apparently wants to ultimately become a pitcher like Roy Halladay.

Senichi Hoshino will be getting a lot of airtime on Tohoku TV stations next month.  He'll be making an appearance on Sendai TV on 1/22 and could then make appearances on Miyagi TV, NHK, KHB, and TBC on 1/24.

===

Team owner / president Toru Shimada response to NPB Commissioner Ryozo Kato's thoughts about requiring all clubs to have home stadiums that can seat at least 30,000:

I know about the NPB is struggling financially.  But considering our current financial situation, it simply isn't possible for us to make [Kleenex Stadium] a 30,000 seat [park].  And we've explained this to them.

===

The Eagles recently announced on Wednesday that Tadashi Sugimoto was joining the staff as a pro scout.

Senichi Hoshino hates formal team meetings and likely won't rely on them during spring camp.

I hated meetings.  You can learn just as much about a player from the small talk that takes place during practice.  (via Sanspo)

Special meetings don't make things stick in player's minds.  If we do have meetings, they'll be short.  Communication [isn't just about] talking a lot, it can also be the exchange of short phrases. ... If a player makes a mistake during an exhibition game, I just approach them one-on-one and ask why they (for example) ran in that situation.  More than meetings, I'll just have regular conversations [with the players]."  (via Sponichi)