...Shigeru Takada wasn't entirely impressed with Shohei Tateyama's performance on Thursday, but was satisfied that he was able to pitch 2 innings.  The only question now is how he feels moving forward.  Pitching coach Daisuke Araki told reporters that he'll likely pitch in two more games before the start of the regular season.

...And then there were two: After giving up 5 runs on 5 hits over 4 innings of work on Thursday, Eulogio De La Cruz was demoted to Ni-gun for extra work.  That leaves the remaining foreign player spot up to either Tony Barnette and Hei-Chun Lee.

The Swallows will have De La Cruz work out of the pen at Ni-gun.

...Masanori Ishikawa continues to pitch well:

3/12: 7 IP, 23 BF, 91 NP, 3 H, 5 SO, 0 BB, 0 R, 0 ER

3/6: 5 IP, 22 BF, 87 NP, 7 H, 3 SO, 0 BB, 0 R, 0 ER

2/27: 3 IP, 11 BF, 46 NP, 3 H, 1 SO, 0 BB, 0 R, 0 ER

Takada jokingly told reporters that seeing Ishikawa pitch so well now only makes him worry about how he might pitch on opening day.

...It appears the Masanori Ishikawa will be the Swallows opening day pitcher.  Based on the current schedule, Ishikawa is scheduled to pitch on the 12th and 19th.  That would put him in line with the opening day starts on the 26th against the Yomiuri Giants (6 days of rest between each start).  Ishikawa is 3-1 when he pitches on opening day.

Shigeru Takada told reporters that the current schedule was put together with the opening day start already in mind.

...Norichika Aoki will apparently be wearing Evil Eye Pro (addidas) sunglasses (with a gold frame) while playing in the outfield this year.  He sat down with a rep from Addidas on Tuesday after the Lotte game was canceled.

...Shohei Tateyama is still on track to pitch two innings in relief against the Seibu Lions on the Thursday (right shoulder discomfort).  Kyohei Muranaka will pitch against the Nippon Ham Fighters on Sunday (back and hip tightness).  Muranaka also threw 60 pitches in the bullpen on Tuesday.

=== 11:40pm JST

...Korean TV broadcaster SBS recorded an interview with Chang-Yong Lim and Chiba Lotte Marine Tae-Gyun Kim on Tuesday in the Yakult clubhouse.

=== 3/9/2010 5:01pm JST

...Eulogio De La Cruz is scheduled to start Thursday's game against the Seibu Lions at Jingu Stadium.  As mentioned before, he and two other players (Tony Barnette and Hei-Chun Lee) are battling it out for the final foreign player spot on the active roster.

...Pitching coach Daisuke Araki told reporters on Tuesday that Shohei Tateyama will be making an appearance in a game against the Seibu Lions on the 11th.  Reports from Tateyama's simulated game at Ni-gun on the 6th were apparently positive and it seems he hasn't suffered any setbacks.

...Yoshinori Sato threw four fastballs (150km/h, 150km/h, 149km/h, and 151km/h) to Sho Nakata in his first at bat in the second on Sunday.  In his second at bat in the 4th, Yoshinori threw a slider for a swinging strike, a fastball that was fouled off, a slider for a ball, and a 123km/h slider on the outside corner for strike three.

Overall, Yoshinori had a strong start: he pitched 5 shutout innings, faced 21 batters, threw 85 pitches, gave up 3 hits, 2 walks, an HBP, and struck out 6.

...Shigeru Takada told reporters that he considers Masato Nakazawa as a candidate for the 5 or 6 spot in starting rotation.  As such, his next appearance will likely come as a starter.  On Sunday, Nakazawa tossed four scoreless inning in relief: he faced 14 batters, threw 48 pitches, gave up a hit, a walk, an HBP, and struck out four.  Nakazawa also picked up a save.

...Shohei Tateyama threw 48 pitches during BP on Saturday.

...Masanori Ishikawa started throwing his curve on Saturday: of the four he threw, three went for balls.

...Masanori Ishikawa was looking forward to his start against Yu Darvish and the Nippon Ham Fighters on Saturday.  And while he didn't have as sparkling a start as Darvish (6 IP, 1 H, 7 SO, 0 BB, 0 R, 0 ER), he did hold his own: 5 IP, 7 H, 2 SO, 0 BB, 0 R, 0 ER.

...Shinya Miyamoto is working his way back from a torn muscle in his lower right leg.  He started in his first game on Saturday against the Fighters and went 0-for-2.

...Eulogio De La Cruz started an Ikusei League game on Friday against the Rakuten Eagles and tossed 3 shutout innings while giving up 2 hits.  He topped out at 150km/h.

Jamie D'Antona, Aaron Guiel, and Chang-Yong Lim have apparently nailed down three of the four foreign player spots on the active roster.  Cruz, Tony Barnette, and Hei-Chun Lee, are all vying for the last spot.

...The Swallows are running a little light on catchers.  And it seems Jamie D'Antona is more than willing to help out if necessary.  After practice on Thursday, he told reporters that he's fully prepared to catch if needed.  Of the 8 catchers the Swallows have on their entire roster, three are banged: Tomohito Yoneno, Ryohei Kawamoto and Masakazu Fukukawa.  They currently have three catchers on the Ichi-gun roster: Ryoji Aikawa, Yuhei Nakamura, and Atsushi Kinugawa.  While the team is alright for the time being, another injury could create some problems.

This is actually good news for Nakamura because the team was planning on sending him back to Ni-gun.  Shigeru Takada told reporters that Nakamura will likely see more playing time during upcoming exhibition games.

...Yuhei Takai was demoted to Ni-gun on Thursday.  The demotion wasn't so much a reflection of his performance, but rather because Norichika Aoki and Aaron Guiel will begin seeing more playing time at Ichi-gun in preparation for the regular season.  The Swallows want Takai to keep getting at bats and feel that he'll have a better chance of that at Ni-gun.

...The Swallows have decided to purify / exorcise the Ni-gun dorms some time in March.  The decision was made after rumors of it being haunted continued to persist.  It seems they also want to cover themselves just in case it has something to do with the 10 injuries that have hit the Swallows since Spring camp.

...Yoshinori Sato tossed 1,545 pitches during Spring camp (period of 30 days), second only to Yasuhiro Ichiba's total of 1,646.

...The media found out on Thursday that Kenichi Matsuoka was married to a 25-year-old office worker named Mayuko Yokoyama (横山麻由子).  The two had been dating for about two years when Matsuoka proposed to her in December.  The two filed marriage papers January 3.

...The Swallows visited Meiji Shrine on Thursday to pray for a victorious season before their full-squad practice at Jingu Stadium.

...The Swallows announced that Keizo Kawashima had successful surgery on his right elbow on Thursday.

...Yoshitaka Hashimoto will likely get to pitch against the Nippon Ham Fighters on the 5th or 6th.

...Hirotoshi Ishii could get the stitches in his right big toe removed as early as the 6th.  On Wednesday, he worked out with weights and told reporters that he'd like to start throwing again.  He added that if possible, he'd like to pitch in a game around the 20th.

...Yoshinori Sato is planning on starting up his own blog.  A possible title for it could be Yoshinori-no mamena nikki, which is actually kind of a clever title because there's a play of words with mame, which means both hard-working and blister.  Interesting, eh? ...that the word for blister can also mean hard-working.

...Swallows' Ichi-gun camp ended on Tuesday.

...I'm not entirely sure what changed, but it seems Shohei Tateyama is now saying that he'll be ready for the start of the regular season, or will at least be working on trying to make sure that he's ready for the start of the regular season.

...The final two spots in the rotation behind Masanori Ishikawa, Tateyama, Kyohei Muranaka, and Yoshinori Sato could go to one of the following: Tony Barnette, Hei-Chun Lee, Ryo Kawashima, and Masato Nakazawa.

...With Keizo Kawashima hurt, Atsushi Fujimoto, Shingo Kawabata, and Takahiro Araki all have a shot at winning the starting job at short.

=== 11:57pm JST

...Shohei Tateyama told reporters on Tuesday that he's not in the position to say whether he'll be able to make the start of the regular season.  He has thrown 250 pitches over a three day period that ended on 3/1.  Tateyama is also hoping to pitch a BP session sometime within a week.

...Shigeru Takada told reporters that he didn't take injuries into serious consideration prior to the start of Spring camp.  He also added that he was pleasantly surprised with both Tony Barnette and Masato Nakazawa and hoped that they would continue to pitch well moving forward.

...Both Nakazawa and Takahiro Araki will stay with the Ichi-gun team for the time being.

=== 3/2/2010 3:08pm JST

...Kyohei Muranaka has been complaining of discomfort in his hips and back since his outing during an exhibition game on 2/27 against the Yokohama Bay Stars.  On Monday, Muranaka ended his workouts after a light game of catch.  Muranaka told reporters that it was probably just a product of being tired and that he would be ok with rest.  His scheduled start against the Nippon Ham Fighters (exhibition game) on the 7th has been canceled.

...The Swallows are trying to be more aggressive on the base paths this year.  The approach hasn't been entirely successful so far this year, but base-running coach Tetsuya Iida does't seem quite as concerned, saying that players won't get any better by playing it safe and that players can only learn about timing issues by trying things out now during practice / intra-squad / exhibition games.

...Yuhei Nakamura sprained his ankle while stealing second base in the third inning of Monday's practice game against the LG Twins.  It doesn't appear to be serious.  Catchers Tomohito Yoneno (right elbow), Masakazu Fukukawa (left flank), and Ryohei Kawamoto (back) are all currently hurting.

In all, eleven players (6 pitchers, 4 catchers, and one infielder) got hurt up during Spring camp in February.