Shuichi Murata did not play in Thursday's exhibition game against Yokohama because he was not feeling well (fever).  His flu test came back negative.

Source: Nikkan Sports 3/21/2013

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Ryosuke Miyaguni will likely get the opening day start.  If he does, at twenty years and eleven months, he will be the second youngest pitcher in franchise history to start the first game of the year.  The youngest: Masumi Kuwata in 1988 at twenty years and zero months.

Source: Daily Sports 3/21/2013, Sanspo 3/21/2013

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1st round draft pick Tomoyuki Sugano is scheduled to start an exhibition game against Rakuten on the 23rd.  Assuming the same pitching schedule, he could make his first regular season start on the 30th against Hiroshima.

If Sugano makes the start, he will become the first rookie pitcher in franchise history since the introduction of the draft in 1965 to make their first start within the team's first two games of the season.  Koji Uehara (1999), Hiroshi Kisanuki (2003), and Hirokazu Sawamura (2011) hold the current record with starts within the team's first three games of the season.

Before 1965: Yoshiaki Ito (1959) and Kunio Jonouchi (1962) both got opening day starts in their first years.

Source: Sponichi 3/21/2013

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Kyosuke Takagi will begin the year as a reliever.

Source: Sanspo 3/21/2013

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Hayato Sakamoto and Shinnosuke Abe worked out at Giants Stadium on Thursday for the first time since returning from the WBC.

Source: Nikkan Sports 3/21/2013, Nikkan Sports 3/21/2013

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Toshiya Sugiuchi threw sixty-one pitches in the bullpen at Giants Stadium on Thursday.  He could pitch in an exhibition game against Rakuten on either the 23rd or 24th.

Source: Nikkan Sports 3/21/2013

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Hirokazu Sawamura threw thirty-seven pitches to a standing catcher in the bullpen at Giants Stadium on Thursday.

Source: Nikkan Sports 3/21/2013

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Kabuki actor Tojuro Sakata will throw out the ceremonial first pitch on the 29th.  Ski jumper Sara Takanashi will throw out the first pitch on the 30th.

Source: Nikkan Sports 3/21/2013

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Tomoya Ichikawa, Daisuke Nakai, and Takahiro Suzuki will be demoted to Ni-gun.  Yoshitomo Tani will be called up.

Source: Sanspo 2/21/2013

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1st round draft pick Tomoyuki Sugano figures he will probably throw about 150 pitches on days he tosses a complete game (total includes pre-game bullpen session).

Source: Sponichi 2/21/2013

Sugano ended workouts early today because of a stomach pains (not serious).

Source: Sponichi 2/21/2013

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Shuichi Murata arrived in Okinawa today.  He reported to camp later in the day and worked out for about an hour.

Source: Sponichi 2/21/2013, Nikkan Sports 2/17/2013

Shuichi Murata strengthened the protective fingernail cover on his right middle finger on Tuesday with additional layers of silk and acrylic.

Source: Sponichi 2/20/2013

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Kyosuke Takagi is scheduled to make a start against Samurai Japan on the 28th at YafuOku Dome.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/20/2013

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The Ichi-gun team closed out the Miyazaki spring camp today.  They have the day off tomorrow before resuming in Naha, Okinawa on Wednesday.

Source: Sponichi 2/11/2013

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Shuichi Murata was told by his doctor that it will take about a month for his nail to heal (right middle finger).  He does not want to sit out the WBC because of a nail.  However, he could not throw the ball for about two weeks the last time he broke a nail.

Murata hit about a hundred baseballs off a tee during batting practice on Sunday.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/11/2013, Sanspo 2/11/2013, Sponichi 2/11/2013

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Ryuya Matsumoto, Nobutaka Imamura, Ryuji Ichioka, Yuki Egarashi, Ken Kato, Ryota Wakiya, 2nd round draft pick Susumu Orui, and Tomoya Inzen will all be given a look during the second half of Ichi-gun spring camp.

Source: Sponichi 2/11/2013

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1st round draft pick Tomoyuki Sugano will likely make his "debut" during an intra-squad game on the 16th.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/11/2013

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About 38,000 fans visited Giants' camp in Miyazaki on Sunday.

Source: Sanspo 2/11/2013

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Shigeo Nagashima visited Giants' camp in Miyazaki today -- he arrived at around 9:50am.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/10/2013

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Shuichi Murata worked out separately from the main team because of a broken fingernail.  He will most likely sit out Monday's intra-squad game.

Source: Sponichi 2/10/2013

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The Giants will give Ryuya Matsumoto a look at Ichi-gun camp, beginning on the 13th.

Source: Sponichi 2/10/2013

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Shuichi Murata hurt his right middle finger during fielding practice today and was taken to the hospital.  There were no problems with his bones, but he did have a broken fingernail.

Source: Sanspo 2/9/2013, Nikkan Sports 2/9/2013

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Dennis Houlton complained of back tightness on the 2nd but is now feeling much better.  He told reporters he was at about seventy-five percent.

Source: Sanspo 2/9/2013

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Hayato Sakamoto joined the main group for workouts today.

Source: Sanspo 2/9/2013

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Taishi Ota went to the hospital on Thursday night because of a fever.  His test for the flu virus came back negative.  He visited the hospital again on Friday and worked out separately from the main group.

Source: Sanspo 2/9/2013

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Michihiro Ogasawara is using a training bat weighs 1.1 kilograms and is ninety-seven centimeters long.

Source: Sponichi 2/9/2013

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1st round draft pick Tomoyuki Sugano's parents have been visiting spring camp every year, mostly to show their support for Tatsunori Hara.  They were at camp on Friday for their son.

Source: Sanspo 2/9/2013

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Owner Kojiro Shiraishi and Sansankai chairman Fujio Mitarai (Canon chairman and president) visited Miyazaki camp on Friday.

Source: Sanspo 2/9/2013, Sponichi 2/9/2013

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Samurai Japan manager Koji Yamamoto was at Giants' camp today.  He watched Tetsuya Utsumi, Tetsuya Yamaguchi, and Hirokazu Sawamura toss batting practice and Toshiya Sugiuchi throw in the bullpen.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/9/2013, Sanspo 2/9/2013

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Tetsuya Utsumi is scheduled to toss batting practice on the 5th.

Source: Daily Sports 2/3/2013

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Nikkan Sports notes that Shuichi Murata topped out at 106 decibels during batting practice on Saturday.  For reference, Shinnosuke Abe topped out at 104 and Hayato Sakamoto and Hisayoshi Chono at ninety-nine.  The levels were measured using a sound meter set up about twenty meters away from home plate.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/3/2013

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Sakamoto stayed back after general workouts on Saturday and took about an hour of extra fielding practice with Daisuke Fujimura and Daisuke Nakai.  After that, he spent about thirty minutes taking extra batting practice.

Source: Sanspo 2/3/2013

Sakamoto and Chono stayed back after workouts today and spent about thirty minutes taking extra batting practice.

Source: Daily Sports 2/3/2013

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Jose Lopez is using an SSK bat.  The barrel is 6.6 centimeters and the bat weighs 880 to 890 grams.

Source: Sponichi 2/3/2013

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Yoshiyuki Kamei hurt his left leg during workouts and was diagnosed with a left hamstring strain on Saturday.  Ryuichi Kajimae also started feeling pain near his left ankle.  Dennis Houlton ended workouts early on Saturday because of tightness in his back.

Source: Sanspo 2/3/2013, Sponichi 2/3/2013

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Yoshinobu Takahashi will be captain while Shinnosuke Abe is away at the WBC.

Source: Sanspo 2/3/2013

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Abe caught parts of 1st round draft pick Tomoyuki Sugano's bullpen session today.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/3/2013

Sugano threw to a squatting catcher for the first time since December.

Source: Sanspo 2/3/2013

Morimichi Takagi told reporters that he is planning to select Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (Yakult) for the All-Star roster because of his ties to the Tohoku region (he is from Iwate).  He also mentioned other names like Shuichi Murata (Yomiuri), Wladimir Balentien (Yakult), and Daisuke Miura (Yokohama).

This coming just a couple days after Takagi said he was thinking about players like Tomoaki Kanemoto (Hanshin), Masahiro Yamamoto (Chunichi), Shota Dobayashi (Hiroshima), and Sho Aranami (Yokohama).  His change in thinking may be a result of wanting to select players with closer connections to the Tohoku region.

FWIW: Dobayashi received 248,231 fan votes, which was eighth most in the CL.

Source: Sponichi 6/28/2012, Sponichi 6/30/2012

Kentaro Nishimura recorded his first save since September 6, 2007 (vs Chunichi at Nagoya Dome).

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Hisayoshi Chono was named the team's third Red Cross Support Leader.  The Giants started the support program in 2008; the first two leaders were Shinnsouke Abe and Hayato Sakamoto.

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Shuichi Murata will donate 10,000 yen to his newborn baby healthcare support fund for every RBI he records this season.

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Toshiya Sugiuchi is 8-0 in his first starts of the year.  He also became just the second player in franchise history to stop a team losing streak with their first start (after arriving from another team).  The other player: Osamu Kubota in 1966.

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TV Ratings for the home opener (Nippon TV, Kanto Region, 19:00-20:43): 11.8%.

Tetsuya Utsumi's start was rained out today.  He will pitch on Saturday.  Yuya Kubo is also slated to pitch on Saturday.

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Shuichi Murata told reporters today that he was looking forward to playing against his former team, the Yokohama Bay Stars, at Yokohama on Saturday, even though he might get booed.

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Tatsunori Hara is planning to replace full-team preparation meetings with individual player meetings -- since the CL will be going with starting pitcher announcements this year, prep meetings can be more focused.

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The Giants announced today that they set up an investigation committee to look into the document leak that led to six players being outed by Asahi Shimbun.

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Head coach Kaoru Okazaki told reporters on Thursday that the line-up the team used on Wednesday will most likely be the one they go with during the regular season (at least, a version based on it).

The line-up from Wednesday: Hayato Sakamoto (SS), John Bowker (LF), Hisayoshi Chono (CF), Murata (3B), Yoshinobu Takahashi (RF), Shinnosuke Abe (C), Michihiro Ogasawara (1B), Yoshitomo Tani (DH), Takayuki Terauchi (2B).

====== UPDATE 3/24 @ 12:28am

To clarify, the investigation committee was not necessarily set up to find out who was behind the document leak, but to review current policy on how the team handles documents with players and to ensure that private documents remain private moving forward.