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Head coach Yutaka Takagi told reporters on Saturday that he was not fully satisfied with practices and that he felt as if there was something missing.  He also felt players were not being vocal enough during workouts.

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Kiyoshi Nakahata's meals on Friday (selected by a nutritionist):

Breakfast @ 7:30am - eggs, ham, natto, white rice, miso soup, yogurt

Lunch @ 12:30pm - beef curry, salad, corn soup, yogurt, a honey and lemon drink

Dinner @ 6:30pm - eel rice bowl, yaki soba, salad, hoikoro (Szechuan pork dish), kani-tama (crab omelet), mizutaki (hot pot), yogurt

Nakahata's hotel room is located on the 12th floor and has a great view of the training facilities (51,975 yen a night).  He watched over practices from his hotel room yesterday and again today.  Nakahata is also getting full reports and video footage of practices.

The Bay Stars announced today that the earliest Nakahata will be allowed to return to the field is February 7 -- while the fever has gone down, he is still having problems with his nose and throat.

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Team owner Makoto Haruta visited the Hiroshima Carp on Friday.

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The Bay Stars held a fan gathering on Friday.  About 1,000 fans attended.  A video message from Nakahata was also shown.

Shugo Fujii told reporters on Thursday that even though he knew he was not on the protected player's list, he kept wondering which player was going to end up leaving.  On Friday, the Bay Stars held a press conference for Fujii and assigned him the number 00.  He also told reporters that he received a phone call from Alex Ramirez.

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The Bay Stars announced the following uniform number assignments today: Masanori Hayashi get the number 24 and Kazumasa Kikuchi the number 30.

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The Bay Stars are planning to give two foreign position players a tryout during spring camp.  They are currently in the process of putting together a list of candidates.

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The Bay Stars released their preliminary spring camp schedule today.

Nikkan Sports is reporting that the Yokohama Bay Stars have decided to select Shugo Fujii (34) + money (50% of 2011 salary) as compensation for losing Shuichi Murata to the Yomiuri Giants.

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This post will be updated throughout the day.

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The Giants have the day off today.

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Yesterday's intra-squad game:

Taishi Ota started at third and batted 4th for the whites.  He finished the day 0-for-3 (ground out to short, fly out to short, strikeout) and also made a throwing error to first in the 7th.

Yoshiyuki Kamei started at third and batted 4th for the whites.  He went 0-for-4 and struck out twice.

Rusty Ryal was the starting DH and batted 3rd for the reds.  He went 0-for-2.

Daisuke Fujimura entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the 5th with runners on first and second with 1 out and nailed a 2-run double to left-center.  He reached on a fielding error (E6)ded out in his second at bat in the 7th and finished the day 0-for-2 with 2 RBI.

===== 2/14 @ 9:20pm

Hidetoshi Tsuburaya worked out for about an hour on his day off today. ... Daijiro Tanaka spent about 2.5 hours working out today -- walking / running, soft-toss BP. ... Kentaro Nishimura worked out for about 1.5 hours today - running, playing catch.  Nishimura started the spring at Ni-gun camp and is trying to earn a call-up to Ichi-gun camp. ... Atsushi Yachida and a number of other Ikusei players, like Takahiro Ijuin and Kenta Doi, spent some time working out today under the watchful eye of Ni-gun manager Masahiro Kawai.

===== 2/14 @ 2:00pm

Shugo Fujii worked out on his day off today in preparation for an outing during an intra-squad game tomorrow.  Hirokazu Sawamura (1st round), also scheduled to pitch tomorrow, spent some time working out today as well.  The two did some running, did some stretches, and played some catch.

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Tatsunori Hara invited the Kashima Antlers (J-1 soccer team) to the Giants' intra-squad game yesterday.

The Giants held a staff meeting today in order to work on their spring camp schedules and to figure out which players will be going to which camp.

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Hisayoshi Chono is using a 1.5kg training bat during BP in the hopes of improving his power hitting.  That's .3kg heavier than what he was using last year and .5kg heavier than the training bat Hayato Sakamoto uses.

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Shugo Fujii returned to Japan on the 14th after spending about a month working out in New York and Hawaii.  On Sunday, he dropped by Giants Stadium for the first time this year and threw about 30 pitches to a standing catcher in the bullpen.  Fujii has been working on polishing his shuto and change this winter.

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Hidetoshi Tsuburaya worked out at Giants Stadium today and took BP alongside Yoshikyuki Kamei.  Tsuburaya apparently feels a connection to Kamei and asked if he could work out with him this month.  He also told reporters that he considered Ryota Wakiya and Shigeyuki Furuki as his "rivals."

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Three light towers arrived at Giants Stadium today.  The remaining three towers will arrive tomorrow.  Construction to install the lights will begin sometime in the beginning of February and will take about a week to install.  The Giants are hoping that the lights will be ready to go by March.

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The Giants announced the following uniform number changes today:

Hideki Asai - from 68 to 38

Tetsuya Matsumoto - from 31 to 32

Kyohei Tsuchimoto - from 19 to 46

Takanobu Tsujiuchi - from 39 to 98

Levi Romero - from 41 to 39

Jumpei Ono - from 32 to 60

Itaru Hashimoto - from 94 to 65

Yoshiyuki Kamei's and Daiiro Tanaka's registered positions were also changed from OF to INF.

Hideki Asai got a 10M yen raise on Wednesday (from 30M yen to 40M yen) and was also given a new number: from 68 to 38.

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Yoshitomo Tani told reporters yesterday that he doesn't plan on agreeing on any terms until he's fully satisfied with the team's offer.  He also added that he doesn't expect negotiations to get drawn out into the new year.  Tani held his first round of negotiations with the team on 12/17 and was apparently given a pay cut of 100M yen.  He placed that offer on hold and will meet the club for a second round of negotiations sometime soon.

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Shugo Fujii worked out (running) at Giants Stadium on Wednesday.  Fujii told reporters that during this time of the year, it was all about working on conditioning and preparing the body for a full season of pitching.

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The Giants' program to visit schools during the off-season (The Giants are coming!) kicked off on Tuesday.  Michihiro Ogasawara and Yasunari Takagi visited Taisho Elementary School on the first day.  And yesterday Shinnosuke Abe and Ryuichi Kajimae visited Chiyoda-ku Izumi Elementary School while Testuya Utsumi and Shun Tono dropped by Kochi Ikku Elementary School.

Giants' players will continue to visit schools through to 12/22.

Sanspo mentions that the Giants may start Hideki Asai, Tetsuya Utsumi, and Shugo Fujii during their 3-game series against the Yakult Swallows that begins tomorrow.

While Asai does not have a start against the Swallows yet this season, the other two have.

Utsumi: 4 G, 3 GS, 2-0, 17.2 IP, 3.06 ERA, 1.19 WHIP

Fujii: 3 G, 2 GS, 1-0, 12.1 IP, 2.19 ERA, 0.89 WHIP

Shugo Fujii (YOM) worked out at Ishikawa Baseball Stadium today in preparation for a start against the Yakult Swallows on the 31st. This will be Fujii's first start since 7/30.

This could be a big start for the Giants as they continue to look for some stability out of their starting rotation.  Since June, the starting rotation has recorded just 15 victory against 26 losses (compared to a 26-12 record between March and May).  The bullpen has also gone from tossing 58.0 innings in May, to 78.0 innings in June, 87.0 innings in July, and finally 90.2 innings in August (and with one more game left to go).

The Yomiuiri Giants took Shugo Fujii of the active roster today due to performance issues.  Fujii pitched well in May (4 G, 4 GS, 3-0, 1.07 ERA, 0.67 WHIP) and June (4 G, 4 GS, 2-0, 4.79 ERA, 1.16 WHIP), but didn't do quite as well in the month of July (5 G, 4 GS, 0-2, 11.21 ERA, 2.04 ERA)

The Yomiuri Giants and Shugo Fujii will be getting together for a second round of meetings later today.  The Giants are said to be preparing an offer (something that apparently was not exchanged during the first meeting) and the number 99 for Fujii.

Since Fujii appears to want to join the Giants, it seems likely that the two sides will come to some sort of an agreement before the end of the day.

I'll be updating this post throughout the date with any Fujii news that comes through.

=== UPDATE 9:22pm JST

The Giants and Fujii agreed on a 1-year deal worth 60M yen.  Fujii also went along with the uniform number 99.

A Q&A via Sanspo:

Your current thoughts...

I wanted to be ambitious and play with a lot of awareness.  I'm really happy I joined the Giants.

You're going to have to compete for a spot in the rotation...

I want to win a spot in the rotation and help the team.  I want to be prepared for anything that comes my way.

Your contract with the Giants...

It's a 1-year deal because I want to take things 1 year at a time.  My salary dropped a bit, but I'd like to take all that I've learned up to now and apply it.

On your uniform number being 99...

I want to start over from scratch.  I thought it might be a good way to begin.

Your goals...

I tried to figure out different ways to beat the Giants up to now, but now I'm part of the team and it feels great.  I want to play with everything I've got and put up some good numbers.

=== UPDATE 12/9/2009 2:19pm JST

Fujii was apparently presented with a few different uniform number options but ultimately chose the 99.  And according to the linked article, his contract could be worth up to 100M yen if he maxes out all the incentives in his contract.