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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

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The Giants visited Aoshima Jinja before practices this morning to pray for a successful season.

Source: Sanspo 2/1/2013

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Ichi-gun and Ni-gun players practiced bunts after general workouts today.  Head coach Masahiro Kawai was in charge of the session.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/1/2013

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Of the eighteen pitchers at Ichi-gun camp, fifteen tossed bullpen sessions.  Tetsuya Utsumi was the first.

Source: Nikkan Sports 2/1/2013

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The Giants are being cautious and do not plan on letting 1st round draft pick Tomoyuki Sugano pitch in a game until at least the 14th (intra-squad game in Okinawa).

Source: Sanspo 2/1/2013

Another possibility is on or after a practice game against Samsung (KBO) on the 19th.

Source: Sponichi 2/1/2013

Tetsuya Utsumi met with the Yomiuri Giants and signed a four-year deal.  Nikkan Sports is reporting that the deal is worth a total of two billion yen while Sponichi and Sanspo put the total at 1.6 billion.

Said Utsumi, "Putting the value of the contract aside, I signed a four-year deal.  I am extremely satisfied   I wanted to be a Yomiuri lifer, so this makes me happy."

Source: Sponichi 12/25/2012, Sanspo 12/25/2012, Nikkan Sports 12/25/2012

The Yomiuri Giants' GM Atsushi Harasawa denied interest in Tsuyoshi Nishioka but did tell reporters the team was looking to improve their second base situation.  Harasawa also added that they were in talks with Michihiro Ogaswara and that they planned to leave a spot open for him.

Source: Sanspo 11/14/2012, Nikkan Sports 11/14/2012

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Tetsuya Utsumi contacted the Yomiuri Giants on Tuesday to let them know he was not going to exercise his domestic FA option.  Source: Sanspo 11/14/2012

The Giants could be preparing a major four-year deal worth 2B yen.  Source: Nikkan Sports 11/14/2012

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Hanshin Tigers' team president Nobuo Minami is willing to wait on Kosuke Fukudome until after the New Year passes.  Source: Sanspo 11/14/2012

The Tigers also willing to sweeten the deal by adding a section about a future as a Hanshin coach.  Source: Nikkan Sports 11/14/2012

Tetsuya Utsumi did not exercise his domestic FA option and will remain with the Yomiuri Giants for at least one more year.  Source: Nikkan Sports 11/13/2012

The Giants may be preparing to offer Utsumi a four-year deal worth 1.4B yen.  Source: Sponichi 11/13/2012, Sponichi 11/13/2012

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Kohei Oda met with the Chunichi Dragons on Monday and was disappointed by negotiations.  He was offered 32.4M yen (down 3.6M yen) for the 2013 season.

Sports Hochi:

"I have my rights as well.  What time is the deadline tomorrow? ... They spoke to me as if they did not need me.  If they want me to stay, there should be something they can say or do that makes me feel valuable. ... I am not trying to turn this into a money game."

Sponichi:

"If they are thinking, 'We need you,' then there must be words or a value they can use to express it.  There was none of that during our conversation. ... I have rights."

Nikkan Sports:

"What time is the deadline [tomorrow]? ... I am not satisfied.  Our concepts for my salary next year were different, everything was off.  I felt as if they did not need me.  It really did not seem like they wanted me to stay. ... I do not think of free agency as a way to get teams to pay more, but I do not know what will happen..."

Oda met with the Dragons again today and signed a deal for 36M yen (no change).  Source: Sports Hochi 11/13/2012, Nikkan Sports 11/13/2012

Tetsuya Utsumi earned his domestic FA option today with eight years of service time on the active roster.

Said Utsumi, "I am very happy. ... I will wait until after the season and take my time in thinking about what I want to do."

Source: Sponichi 7/26/2012

Tetsuya Utsumi made his third career opening day start and suffered his first career opening day loss.

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According to Sanspo and Sponichi, the Giants suffered their first ever opening day shutout loss.  Sponichi adds that it was also the first time they were limited to just two hits on opening day (the previous low was three hits); and the first time they were retired twenty-five consecutive times without a hit (the previous high was twenty-one outs before recording their first hit).

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The Giants announced on Friday that they will once again donate ten times the total number of fans that attend games at Tokyo Dome this season to relief efforts in northern Japan.  They drew 2,568,589 in attendance at sixty-three Tokyo Dome games last season and donated 25,685,890 yen.

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.

The Giants held a pep rally at a hotel in Tokyo on Thursday.  About two hundred people attended.  And Tatsunori Hara announced that Tetsuya Utsumi will be the opening day starter.

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Hirokazu Sawamura's workouts at Giants Stadium on Thursday included running and long distance throwing (about 100 meters).

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Ryosuke Miyaguni worked out at Giants Stadium on Thursday.  He will likely pitch against the Oakland A's on March 25.

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Shuichi Murata and Shinnosuke Abe are still competing for the clean-up spot in the line-up.

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Shun Tono has not allowed a run in any of the four exhibition games he has pitched in (12 IP, 7 H, 5 BB, 10 SO).

D.J. Houlton was hit on the right hand by a come-backer to the mound in the 3rd inning of today's game against the Hiroshima Carp.  He was taken to the hospital for an examination and was diagnosed with a contusion on the back of his right hand.  There was no damage to the bones.

The injury does not appear to be serious but he will most likely skip his next outing.

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Scott Mathieson started a Kyoiku League game against the Rakuten Eagles today and did not allow a run or a hit over three innings of work.  He did walk two, hit one, and strikeout one.  His also topped out at 150km/h.

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The 2011 draft class greeted fans at the entrance gates at Tokyo Dome before today's game.

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The Giants announced today that AKB48 will sing the National Anthem on Opening Day.

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According to Sanspo, Tetsuya Utsumi will be the opening day starter; Toshiya Sugiuchi will start the second game of the season.

Nikkan Sports and Sponichi also point to Utsumi as the opening day starter, but make no mention of Sugiuchi as being the number two starter.

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Sugiuchi became the first Giants' pitcher to take the mound at Tokyo Dome while wearing the number eighteen since Masumi Kuwata on April 13, 2006.