===

The Ni-gun Giants had the day off today.

===

For the fourth time during spring camp, the Giants decided to start practices indoors today because of the cold weather.

===

Tetsuya Yamaguchi faced Hisayoshi Chono and Hayato Sakamoto during batting practice today and threw forty-seven pitches.

===

Taishi Ota stayed back after general workouts for about an hour of extra fielding practice in the outfield today.

===

Kentaro Nishimura is scheduled to start an intra-squad practice game on February 12.

===

Sanspo reports that the first six spots in the line-up could go: Hayato Sakamoto, Daisuke Fujimura, Hisayoshi Chono, Shinnosuke Abe, Shuichi Murata, Michihiro Ogasawara.

Nikkan Sports mentions that Tatsunori Hara could try something a one thru five of: Chono, Sakamoto, John Bowker, Abe, Murata.  It is also possible that Ryosuke Miyaguni gets a shot at being the sixth starter in the rotation.

Regardless, it seems Hara will reserve the four and five spots for Abe and Murata.

====== UPDATE 2/9 @ 1:54am

Fujimura will be using lighter cleats this year, from 330 grams to about 300 grams.

===

Shun Tono is working on a new delivery where he does not raise his arms above his head when he lifts his left leg.

===

Sponichi reports that Hara wants his base line-up to be Sakamoto batting first, Chono batting third, Murata batting fourth, and Abe batting fifth.  From there, players can be moved around.  For example: if someone different were to bat third, then Chono could move to batting lead-off with Sakamoto dropping down to the seven hole.

Regarding the outfield spots, Sponichi mentions, in a separate article, that Chono will be treated as the everyday right fielder.  Bowker and Yoshinobu Takahashi will battle it out for left, and Tetsuya Matsumoto and Ota will compete for the CF job.

===

Today was the end of the first block of spring camp for the Ichi-gun Giants.  The team has the day off tomorrow.

===

The Giants attracted 18,000 fans on Saturday.

===

Hirokazu Sawamura tossed batting practice today (only fastballs) and said his goal for the session was to throw at 50-60%.

===

Shuichi Murata stayed back after general practices today and spent fifty minutes taking about 500 swings against a pitching machine.

===

Yi-Hao Lin faced Yoshiyuki Kamei and Tetsuya Matsumoto during batting practice on Saturday and threw fifty-one pitches (all fastballs).  Kamei and Matsumoto combined to make solid contact just four times.

===

Scott Mathieson is scheduled to pitch in an intra-squad game on February 16.

===

The Giants started practice indoors today for the second time in as many days.  While the wind died down a bit since yesterday, the weather was still cold.

===

Miyazaki Prefectural Governor Shunji Kono and Miyazaki mayor Tadashi Tojiki visited spring camp today and presented the team with Miyazaki beef, Miyazaki chicken, Miyazaki Hamayu pork, hyuganatsus (citrus fruit), kumquats, and strawberries.  Tatsunori Hara in turn gave the governor and mayor autographed uniforms.

===

Hara told reporters today that he planned to select his opening day starter sometime in March.  He also said that there would probably be three candidates.

===

Ryosuke Miyaguni left practices early today because he was not feeling well.  He was examined at a hospital and tests for the influenza virus came back negative.  His status for tomorrow's practices are currently up in the air.

===

Daisuke Fujimura stayed back after general workouts today for extra fielding practice.

===

Max winds in Miyazaki on Thursday reached 19.6m/s at around 10am.  All workouts, other than fielding practices, took place indoors.

===

Pitching coach Kazuhisa Kawaguchi spoke to Scott Mathieson about possible balk problems when he pitched out of the stretch during his bullpen session on Thursday.

===

Shuichi Murata will attempt to be more selective at the plate after his old college manager, Hiroshi Suzuki, suggested that if he walked more, he could bat .300 and hit 30 homers.

===

Evening swing practices began on Thursday.  There were plans to hold the session outdoors but the bad weather moved things indoors.

===

Adidas adipure training shoes will be making an appearance at Giants' spring camp.

=== UPDATE 2/4 @ 1:36am

The Giants invited the Miyazaki Police Department's Organized Crime Division to provide Ichi-gun players and coaches with a lecture on organized crimes today.

The Giants started their workouts indoors today because of strong wind and cold temperature.

===

Shuichi Murata is going with the high sock look.

===

Tatsunori Hara spent about five minutes giving Taishi Ota tips on hitting while watching Murata take BP on Wednesday (Hara was using Murata as a reference model).

===

Shinnosuke Abe caught Ryosuke Miyaguni's bullpen session on Wednesday.

===

The coaches and remaining players working out at Giants Stadium arrived at Miyazaki Airport today and attended a welcoming ceremony.  Players and staff later visited Miyazaki Jingu and prayed for a successful season.  At night, the entire team convened for a general meeting.

===

D.J. Houlton gave himself a clean shave before heading to Miyazaki today.  The team also held a press conference for Houlton at the team hotel in Miyazaki.

===

Shuichi Murata plans take BP without wearing batting gloves whenever he can, especially during soft-toss, so that he can get a better feel for hitting the ball.  Tatsunori Hara is also a strong proponent of taking BP without batting gloves.

===

While Yoshinobu Takahashi did not visit Miyazaki Jingu with the rest of the team today because of his cold, he did attend the general meeting later in the day.  He should be ok for the start of spring camp tomorrow.

===

In order to help break the ice, both Toshiya Sugiuchi and Murata suggested that teammates call them by his first names.  More specifically, by their "nicknames": Toshi-nee (literally, brother Toshi) and Shu-san (shortened version of Shuichi).

===

The media learned that sumo wrestler Hakuho is planning to visit the team some time during spring camp in Miyazaki.

===

Nippon TV announced their schedule for Yomiuri games today:

Terrestrial: twenty-two games (sixteen day games and six night games) down from twenty-three games (fifteen day games and eight night games) last year.

BS NTV: sixty-one games

CS NTV G+: seventy-two games

Toshiya Sugiuchi and Tetsuya Utsumi tossed bullpen sessions side-by-side today.  Sugicuhi threw 25 pitches (standing catcher).

Hirokazu Sawamura also tossed a bullpen session -- 22 pitches with a standing catcher.

===

Shuichi Murata worked out for about three hours on Friday.  He also narrowed down with bat he will be using this season -- he used two bats last year, one with a center of gravity closer to the bat head (good for power) and another with the center of gravity closer to the bat handle (good for line drives) and decided to go with the one that has the center of gravity closer to the bat handle.

===

Position players were split into three groups for fielding practice before taking BP on Friday.  Hayato Sakamoto took an extra hour of fielding practice before working on his hitting.

===

Tatsunori Hara would like to see John Bowker compete for the starting left field job and the clean-up spot in the line-up.  But he does have his work cut out for him since Hara has also said he was thinking about batting Hisayoshi Chono, Shinnosuke Abe, and Shuichi Murata three, four, and five in the order.

The Giants held a press conference at their team offices to introduce Scott Mathieson and John Bowker today.  Both players arrived in Japan earlier in the day.

Tatsunori Hara was also at the press conference -- the last time he attended a press conference for a foreign player: 2006 when Seug-Yeop Lee joined the team.

===

Shun Tono tossed a bullpen session (standing catcher) today, the first day of early training camp in Miyazaki.

===

Tetsuya Utsumi tossed 35 pitches in the bullpen (standing catcher) today.

Utsumi organized a meal-time gathering at a Yakiniku restaurant for pitchers attending early training camp in Miyazaki on Thursday.  The outing lasted about three and a half hours and allowed players Toshiya Sugiuchi the chance to get to know other pitchers on the staff.

Sugiuchi also had a chance to introduce himself during a team meeting at the player hotel on Thursday.

===

The Giants may give Taishi Ota a look in center during spring camp (they want to take more advantage of his speed and arm).

===

Shuichi Murata apparently wants to sign about 1,000 autographs during spring camp.

===

Seems the Yomiuri Giants are not the only ones high on Ryosuke Miyaguni: Hanshin Tiger Yasutomo Kubo told reporters on Thursday that he was impressed with the 19-year-old prospect.

===

A weight room was added to the facilities at Sun Marine Stadium -- a training room on first base side near the indoor bullpens was converted and equipped with weight training equipment.  The Giants "donated" the weight room to Miyazaki by footing the bill (about 14M yen).

===

Sugiuchi worked out in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima between January 4 and January 23.  He returned to Fukuoka after that and traveled to Miyazaki on Thursday by himself.

The second block of training camp for the 2011 draft class ended on Saturday.

===

Hayato Sakamoto left Japan out of Narita Airport to join Team Abe in Guam on Saturday.  Sakamoto had been working out in Miyazaki with Shinya Miyamoto (YAK) until Friday.

===

Toshiya Sugiuchi worked on his bunts, took soft toss BP, and spent time in the cages during practices on Friday.  Sugiuchi uses the same kind of bat Norichika Aoki.

===

1st round draft pick Ryuya Matsumoto took a vision training test during practices on Friday and got perfect scores on five out of eight sections.  His final score (36/40) ended up just one point away from franchise record holder Hisashi Chono (37/40).

In other tests, Matsumoto finished near the bottom in situps; in sixth during a 3,000 meter run; and in 5th during a yo-yo intermittent test.

The Softbank Hawks announced today that they will go with money compensation (80% of 2011 salary) for losing Toshiya Sugiuchi to the Yomiuri Giants.  The Hawks took a look at the Giants list of non-protected players and did not find any good matches.

UPDATE @ 5:21pm - Sugiuchi made 350M yen last season so the Giants will be required to pay the Hawks 280M yen in compensation.

Toshiya Sugiuchi threw the ball about 70 times (mixed in with some off-speed pitches) during a game of catch on Tuesday.  He also plans to toss a bullpen session (standing catch) by 1/23.

Sugiuchi was also presented with a number of food gifts from Satsumasendai mayor Hideo Iwakiri, including 10kg of Kagoshima Kurogewagyu and 12kg of kumquats.

Nikkan Sports also notes that Sugiuchi has been fairly successful against the Hanshin Tigers: in 12 lifetime starts he is 5-1 with a 1.84 ERA.  He also went 2-0 against the Tigers the 2003 Nippon Series and won the Series MVP.

===

Tatsunori Hara is apparently a little concerned with Shun Tono because his numbers were down last season despite the introduction of the new baseball and plans to keep a close eye on his workouts/performance this year.