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Between throwing batting practice and tossing a bullpen session, Yudai Ono threw about 200 pitches today.  Pitching coach Shinji Imanaka apparently had to step in to stop Ono.

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Ni-gun pitching coach Imanaka visited Ichi-gun camp on Friday and worked with Yudai Ono, Toshiya Okada, and Ryuya Ogawa.

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1st round draft pick Shuhei Takahashi took fielding practice at short on Friday.  While the team does see him as a third baseman, they also feel he may have a future as a shortstop.  He might also get a look at second.

Morimichi Takagi also spent over twenty minutes hitting grounders to Takahashi.

Yudai Ono threw 30 pitches in the bullpen on Wednesday (squatting catcher).

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Daiki Yoshikawa strained his back and worked out under separate a training program on Wednesday.  Yoshikawa suffered the injury during practice sessions on Monday (January 23).  The injury is not considered serious.

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Morimichi Takagi will likely go with Masahiro Araki at second and Hirokazu Ibata at short this season after the two players talked it out with each other and contacted the team with their thoughts.

Twelve players exchanged high-fives with fans before the start of practices today.  Kazuki Yoshimi, Masato Kobayashi, and the Donoue brothers (Naomichi and Takehiro) were amongst the twelve players.  About 335 fans showed up.

FYI: the first high-five session that was scheduled on January 20 was canceled due to rain.

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Motonobu Tanishige took part in a talk session at Nagoya Miryoku Hasshin Shop, Nagomiya today.  About 100 fans attended the 30 minute event.

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Takuya Asao, Junki Ito, Hirokazu Ibata, Masahiro Araki, and Kei Nomoto spent about two hours meeting patients at Japanese Red Cross Nagoya Daiichi Hospital today.

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Araki told reporters today that his experience at short may have helped him become a better second baseman as well.

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Pitching coach Hiroshi Gondo told reporters that they could end up using Hitoki Iwase and Asao as closers this year.  Seems the team is concerned with Asao's fatigue -- he has appeared in 151 games in two years.

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Yudai Ono and Yoshimi closed out their training with Wei-Ying Chen in Fukuoka and returned to Nagoya Stadium to continue their workouts on Monday (January 23).

Ono has been tweaking his mechanics to make better use of his lower body.

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Takeshi Yamamsaki took part in the player training camp taking place at Nagoya Stadium on Monday.  He also introduced himself to the 2011 draft class.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

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Today's practice game against the LG Twins:

The Dragons won the game, 3-2.

Hitoki Iwase tossed a shutout inning in relief (0 hits).

Joel Guzman hit another home run, his third in as many games.  With runners on first and second and no out in the third, Guzman hit a slider out to left-center.  He is now 5-for-15 with 8 RBI in non-intra-squad games.

Masahiko Morino started and third and batted 3rd; he collected two hits.

Yetersday's practice game against the LG Twins:

Toshiya Okada started the game and pitched 3 shutout innings while allowing 2 hits.

===== 2/24 @ 11:04pm

Naomichi Donoue did not play in today's practice game against the LG Twins.  Donoue took a ball of his right chest (while playing at third) during Wednesday's practice game and was probably held out of the game because of that.

===== 2/24 @ 4:19pm

Yudai Ono (1st round) threw 30 pitches in the bullpen today (standing catcher).  Since Ono has been taking things slow as he recovers from left shoulder pains, this was his first bullpen session during spring camp.

Ono - "I was feeling pretty good while playing catch, so I thought I'd try throwing off a mound where there's an incline.  I never thought I'd be able to throw in the bullpen during spring camp."

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Toshiya Okada threw 108 pitches in the bullpen after his practice game start yesterday.  Over two practice game outings, Okada has not allowed a run over 5 innings of work.

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While Kazuhiro Wada is more or less penciled in to bat fourth in the line-up, Hiromitsu Ochiai may be willing to move Wada to the 5-hole if another batter can step up and take on the responsibility of batting clean-up.  Wada has already told reporters that he doesn't consider himself a clean-up hitter so moving him wouldn't be a problem.

So far, Joel Guzman appears to be the best candidate.  That means the Dragons could have the following heart of the order: Masahiko Morino, Guzman, Wada, and Tony Blanco.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

===== 2/10 @ 10:23pm

Wada stayed back for about 2 hours after general practice to work on his hitting.

Said Wada, "I initially thought [I'd stay back] for about an hour, but decided to stay longer after the manager gave me some more advice."

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Enyelbert Soto faced Atsushi Fujii and Naomichi Donoue during BP and threw 44 pitches.  Seems Soto had some problems with his control and told reporters that he still wasn't at 100%.

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Owner Bungo Shirai visited Yomitan camp today to watch Ni-gun workouts.

===== 2/10 @ 4:00pm

Tony Blanco got some hitting tips from Kazuhiro Wada and plans on passing the information on to Joel Guzman.

Said Blanco, "I asked Wada for advice on how to hit a lot of home runs.  Wada learns his stuff from Ochiai.  And that's what I learned from him.  Now I'll pass what I learned on to Guzman."

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Pitching coach Seiji Kobayashi told reporters yesterday that Yudai Ono (1st round) probably won't toss a bullpen session during spring camp and that at this point, they had no idea when he might be ready.

Ono managed to play catch at a maximum distance of 20 meters during rookie training camp in January, but has not been able to stretch that out any further since.  He has been spending most of spring camp running and building on his foundation.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

=== 9:11pm

Wei-Ying Chen made an appearance during BP today and tossed 53 pitches.

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Yudai Ono (1st round) continues to take things slow as he makes his way back from left shoulder problems.  Ono still has not been able to play catch at full strength and is still only throwing at a max distance of about 20 meters.

Ono has been working out Kazuki Yoshimi and Akifumi Takahashi at Ni-gun.

=== 4:04pm

Hitoki Iwase threw 47 pitches during BP today; he faced Motonobu Tanishige and Kazuhiro Wada.

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Masahiro Yamamoto worked out under a separate training menu (for about 1.5 hours) today.  He told reporters that he felt fine and that he felt no pain in his right ankle if he didn't apply to much pressure on it.

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Hiromitsu Ochiai made the pitchers run yesterday.

After borrowing a stopwatch from the training coach, Ochiai spoke to individual pitchers to set times for how it would take them to run an 800 meter.  If the pitchers failed to make it in in the time that was designated, they'd have to do it over.  Ochiai had each pitcher run three timed 800 meters.  Out of all the pitchers, Wei-Ying Chen was the only one that actually had to do a run over.

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Daiki Yoshikawa (2nd round) was placed into the same group as Hirokazu Ibata after being in the same group as Keiji Oyama and Akihiro Maeda.  The Dragons want Yoshikawa to watch and learn from Ibata.

Hiroshima held an organization meeting yesterday to go over a list of possible draft picks.  The Carp are hoping to secure two pitchers (that can throw hard) in the upcoming draft that can help the team right away.  As such, the Carp expanded their list of college / amateur players from 24 to 36 players.  Tatsuya Oishi heads the list that also includes Yuki Saito, Yudai Ono, and Hirokazu Sawamura.

The Bay Stars held a 2-hour organizational meeting earlier today to go over a list of possible draft picks (and to review videos of the players).  It seems the Bay Stars' list includes of a lot of left-handed pitchers, topped off by college prospects like Yudai Ono and Masahiro Inui and high school standout Yosuke Shimabukuro (all lefties),