Special hitting instructor Futoshi Nakanishi spent about an hour giving Kenta Imamiya advice on hitting today.

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Alex Cabrera arrived at Miyazaki Airport today and will join the team for spring camp on Friday.

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Sadaharu Oh spent about two hours working with Yuki Yanagita on his hitting on Wednesday.

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Tadashi Settsu has tweaked his pitching mechanics a little -- he increased his stride by about ten centimeters.

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Kazuyuki Hoashi did not toss a bullpen session on the first day of spring camp.

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Imamiya, Keisuke Kaneko, and 3rd round draft pick Masayoshi Tsukada are potential starting shortstop candidates.

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The Hawks held a press conference for Keisuke Kaneko at Yahoo Dome today.  He was also assigned the number four.

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Nobuhiro Matsuda worked out at the Saitozaki training facilities today.  Matsuda is aiming for 30 homers and 30 stolen bases this year.

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Pitching coach Ikuo Takayama told reporters on Monday that there was a good chance that the opening day start would come down to either Tadashi Settsu or Kazuyuki Hoashi.

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Ayatsugu Yamashita worked out with Tsuyoshi Wada this winter and managed to raise his weight from 79kg to about 86kg.

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Koji Akiyama could have 1st round draft pick Shota Takeda start things off at Ichi-gun spring camp.  Takeda has yet to toss a bullpen session and told reporters that he needed a little more time to stretch his body out before he does.

Hiroki Kokubo is working out in Phoenix, AZ.  Kokubo had surgery on his neck earlier during the winter and also found that he lost muscle mass in both his left chest (40%) and left triceps (less than 33%) after taking strength tests in the US.  Since then, he has managed to improve the balance in his muscles and has added 4kg to his frame and currently weighs 91kg.

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5th round draft pick Shinya Kayama tossed 55 pitches in the bullpen today (30 pitches standing catcher, 25 pitches squatting catcher).  He also threw his curve, change, and slider.  This was Kayama's third bullpen session.

Ikusei 3rd round draft pick Shota Miura threw 30 pitches (all fastballs) in the bullpen (standing catcher) today.

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Tadashi Settsu agreed to a 95M yen raise on Thursday and will be paid 190M yen in 2012.  That is the second highest total (behind Yu Darvish's 200M yen) for a player in their fourth year.

Sponichi is reporting that Tadashi Settsu was scratched from his Asia Series start tonight because of tightness in his shoulder.

According to Sponichi: Tsuyoshi Wada and Toshiya Sugiuchi probably won't be going to the Asia Series -- Wada wants rest and Sugiuchi is still recovering from some left shoulder pains.  D.J. Houlton is scheduled to return to the US today.  That leaves Tadashi Settsu and Hiroki Yamada as the only Nippon Series starters that will probably be available for the Asia Series.

Nobuhiko Matsunaka (right knee) and Hiroki Kokubo (back, neck) will be missing the Asia Series because of injuries.

I'll keep this updated throughout the day.  I'm hoping that all players and team personnel have been able to contact their families by now.

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Chunichi Dragons

Hiromitsu Ochiai is from Akita and told reporters that his parents were fine and that his family in Tokyo were fine as well.

Tony Blanco was about to take a shower after practice at Nagoya Stadium yesterday when the earthquake hit and rushed outside with just a towel wrapped around his waist.

Yomiuri Giants

Takanori Hoshi is from Miyagi and was able to contact his family.

Takahiro Suzuki is from Soma, Fukushima and learned from his younger brother that his family was safe.

A number of players, including Shun Tono and Shigeyuki Furuki were working out at Giants Stadium yesterday when the earthquake hit.  They all rushed out to the parking lot.  Cracks were found in a stairwell at the indoor facilities.

Yakult Swallows

Yoshinori Sato is from Sendai, Miyagi and used a phone in the press box yesterday because his mobile phone wouldn't dial out.  He was able to contact his family and was relieved to find them safe.

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama is from Hanamaki, Iwate and was able to contact his family.

Hiroshima Carp

Kenta Kurihara (from Tendo, Yamagata) and Tsubasa Aizawa (Ibaraki) were all able to confirm the safety of their families.

GM Kiyoaki Suzuki told reporters yesterday that there will still some players that haven't been able to contact their families.

Yokohama Bay Stars

Shinji Niinuma is from Ishinomaki, Miyagi and hasn't been able to get in touch with his family.  He told reporters he keeps getting busy signals and is really concerned because his family lives near the water.

A number of players, including Daisuke Miura, Takehiro Ishikawa, Hichori Morimoto, Tomokazu Oka, and Niinuma, spent the night at Yokohama Stadium due to traffic conditions.

Softbank Hawks

Toru Hosokawa is from Aomori and was able to contact his family.

Tadashi Settsu was worried about his father that works in Sendai.

Yuki Shimooki is from Iwate and was able to contact his family and friends.

Seibu Lions

Yusei Kikuchi is from Iwate and couldn't contact his family and friends yesterday and was able to get in touch with his family.

Takayuki Kishi is from Sendai and was able to contact his parents and sister, but only by e-mail.

Chiba Lotte Marines

Yasuhiko Yabuta, Bill Murphy, Hayden Penn, and an interpreter were on their way back to Tokyo from Akashi, but had to spent the night at Nagoya.

QVC Marine Field appears to be ok, but there seems to be some problems with liquefaction in the parking lots.  The stadium was also apparently closed off to the general public out of concern of land subsidence.

Nippon Ham Fighters

The entire team had the day off yesterday and was staying at a hotel in Gifu (most players were in rooms on or above the 20th or 25th floor (accounts differ based on reports) of a 43 story building.  Atsunori Inaba was soaking in the tub in a hotel room on the 27th floor when the earth quake struck and told reporters he thought he was going to die.

The Fighters were worried about Yuki Saito (1st round) because he didn't reply back to e-mail messages that were sent out by the club's PR department.  It wasn't until 5 hours later that his reply made it back to the Fighters (he probably didn't get the message right away).

The Ni-gun team that was in Yokosuka for a Kyoiku League game against Yokohama, had to spend the night in the Yokohama Stadium player locker rooms because of traffic.  The team left Bay Stars Stadium in Yokosuka at 3:00pm and hit severe traffic.  At around 7:30pm, the team decided to head to Yokohama Stadium out of concern for the players and didn't arrive until 11:40pm.

Orix Buffaloes

Takashi Kamoshida is from Ibaraki and was able to contact his parents -- seems they had to spend the night in their car because their house was a mess.

Fumihiro Suzuki is from Fukushima and his parent's home suffered damage from the quake.  Suzuki couldn't contact his family, but his sister was able to get through and told him that everyone was safe (his mother mother and grandmother were at home but his father was away on a business trip).

Rakuten Eagles

Players like Masahiro Tanaka, Hisashi Iwakuma, Satoshi Nagai, Darrell Rasner, Kenta Satake, Shinya Okamoto were on a Shinkansen heading to Tokyo from Akashi.  They all had to spend the night in Nagoya.

About 80 players, coaches, and staff were at Kleenex Stadium when the earthquake hit and they all gathered in the parking lot outside.  There were some people with a few cuts and bruises, but no major injuries.  By around 7:30pm, all players were able to confirm that their families were safe.  The club was not able to check on the stadium for structural damage yesterday.

About 30-40 people camped out in tents that were set up on the field at Kleenex Stadium.

The Eagles will be giving their player the next two days (12th and 13th) to check on their families.

Kleenex Stadium will be open to people looking to recharge their mobile phones until 9pm today.  The stadium will be open again tomorrow between 9am and 9pm.  Bathrooms on the second floor concourse have also bee opened up.

During yesterday's exhibition games:

At Yokohama Stadium: the game was stopped at 14:47 and called 16 minutes later.  Fans, players, staff...  The field was opened up to everyone at 15:22 for their safety.  3,756 fans were in attendance.  It wasn't until about an hour later that players were able to go to the locker rooms.  FWIW: this was also the day the new turf at the stadium was unveiled.

Sources:

由規、記者席から仙台の家族の無事確認 (Daily Sports)

佑ちゃん無事…発生から５時間後に確認 (Daily Sports)

稲葉、都内ホテルで「死ぬかと思った」 (Daily Sports)

マー君ＨＰで「無事」名古屋で降車 (Daily Sports)

恐怖…悲鳴…横浜球場「助けて～」 (Daily Sports)

揺れるハマスタ…ナインもファンも避難 (Nikkan Sports)

オリ・鴨志田沈痛…茨城の実家に被害 (Daily Sports)

オリックス鈴木捕手、福島の実家が半壊 (Daily Sports)

ソフトＢ移動に影響、メールで安否確認 (Nikkan Sports)

西武菊池、岩手実家と連絡つかず「心配」 (Nikkan Sports)

マリン液状化…ロッテ堀氏の引退試合中止 (Nikkan Sports)

楽天家族優先、安否確認でオープン戦中止 (Nikkan Sports)

オリックス広報の実家被害に (Nikkan Sports)

広島栗原山形の家族とつながらない (Nikkan Sports)

ハム中田地震に恐怖「死ぬかと思った」 (Nikkan Sports)

Ｋスタ宮城グラウンドにテント張り市民避難 (Sanspo)

試合中止の２日間の行動を選手に一任 (Sanspo)

日本ハム２軍帰れずハマスタロッカー１泊 (Sanspo)

Ｇ・東野ヒヤリ、室内練習場階段にヒビ (Sanspo)

広島・栗原、会沢家族の無事を確認 (Daily Sports)

【中日】秋田出身・落合監督も絶句 (Nikkan Sports)

【西武】仙台出身の岸「試合どころじゃ」 (Nikkan Sports)

西武・岸と雄星、実家の無事を確認 (Sanspo)

Ｋスタ宮城で携帯電話充電できます (Daily Sports)

中日ブランコ　シャワー中飛び出した (Nikkan Sports)

横浜・三浦帰宅できずハマスタで夜を明かす (Daily Sports)

巨人・鈴木、地元・福島の被害に言葉失う (Sanspo)

ロッテがＯＰ戦中止、球場周辺で液状化現象 (Sanspo)

This post will be updated throughout the day.

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Today's intra-squad game:

Toshiya Sugiuchi started for the white team and pitched 2 shutout innings while giving up 1 hit.  He also struck out one.  Tsuyoshi Wada started for the red team and did not allow a run over an inning of work.  He gave up a 1 hit and struck out 2.

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Tadashi Settsu threw 91 pitches in the bullpen today.  He is currently scheduled to start Wednesday's practice game against the KIA Tigers.

Settsu - "My tempo was bad, I lacked consistency in my mechanics.  It was a bad session so I ended up throwing a little extra."

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Soichi Fujita could be added to the team's 70-man rosters as early as the 23rd.  Fujita joined the Ichi-gun group yesterday and will get a chance to pitch 1 inning during Wednesday's practice game.  Whether or not he makes the 70-man roster will depend on that outing.  Fujita has also already pitched well during two previous 1-inning outings during intra-squad games on the 16th and 19th.

The Hawks currently have 65 players on their 70-man roster.

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Munenori Kawasaki could end up playing in all 17 exhibition games the team has scheduled.  That would be fine for Kawasaki since he has already told reporters that he'd like to play as much as possible.

Toshiya Sugiuchi met with the Softbank Hawks front office for a second round of negotiations today.  And even though the Hawks stuck to their initial raise of 50M yen, Sugiuchi decided to sign because he felt the club was being more sincere (and needful of his services) this time around.

And it seems the club also warned the previous staff member that handled the negotiations (Itaru Kobayashi ?) about being careful in the way they handle players.

Nobuhiro Matsuda also met with the front office today and agreed to a 42M yen (up 6M yen) 2011 salary.

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Sadaharu Oh would like to see Alex Cabrera hit a career high in homers next season.

"He's hit 50 or more homers twice in his career," said Oh.  "Do I want him to establish a new career high next season?  Of course.  He should be able to, if he gets on a good rhythm.  I'm sure he knows exactly what he needs to do."

Oh also told reporters he heard that negotiations with Cabrera are going well.

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Tadashi Settsu was a guest on KBC Radio Charity Musicthon on Friday.  During the show, Settsu said, "I would like to try my hand [at starting], but I also think it might be nice to record my third consecutive 70-game season."  When asked what his secret was for being able to pitch in 70 games two year's straight, he replied sleep.  Settsu apparently gets about 10 hours of sleep every night.

Hitoshi Tamura plans on working out in Hawaii in January (for about 10 days beginning on 1/13).  Until then, he'll return to his home in Yokohama and workout at a nearby gym.

FYI: the Hawks and Tamura are still in the process of finalizing a deal.

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Seiichi Uchikawa plans on approaching the 2011 season with a goal of batting 1.000.

It seems Uchikawa is also thinking about training on his own this year and added that he'd be more than happy to help Kenta Imamiya out.

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Toru Hosokawa visited Seibu Dome on Thursday to clean out his locker.  Hosokawa noticed how the Lions were treating their 2010 draft picks and reflected on how he doesn't remember things being quite as extravagant when he was drafted.  He then switched gears and said he was really looking forward to the events he'll be attending as a member of the Hawks.

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Koji Akiyama told reporters on Wednesday that he plans on using Tadashi Settsu as a set-up man and not as a starter.

"I've never said one thing about converting him to a starter," said Akiyama.  "I'll continue to use him [as we've been using him].  It's possible things could change based on changes to the roster though."

Settsu appeared reserved to the decision and said, "I do like being a set-up man, and I find pride in doing it.  I was told [I would be used in relief] and there is the team situation [to think about].  They can't just listen to what I want."

It seems the Softbank Hawks might be thinking of converting Tadashi Settsu into a starter.  Looks like the Hawks' need for a right-handed starter might be greater than their need for a reliever.

And Nobuhiro Matsuda plans on swinging the bat at least 10,000 times during fall camp.  That works out to at least 500 swings a day (since it's a 20-day camp).