Archived Weblog Entry - 02/15/2003: "Japanese Baseball News: Millar a Marlin Again; Johjima Japanese for "Benito Santiago""

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02/15/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Millar a Marlin Again; Johjima Japanese for "Benito Santiago""

Team Reports

Yomiuri Ace Koji Uehara threw 181 pitches in batting practice Friday, employing his entire repetoire. Pitching coach Masaaki Saito is hoping that this kind of prolonged throwing will build Uehara's stamina and result in more complete games this season....Rookie shortstop Masahiro Nagata was able to take an extra base on rightfielder Roberto Petagine on a ball the 18 year old hit down the line off of a cutter down and in from Cory Bailey during a simulated game Friday for triple, bringing a big smile to the face of a Chunichi Dragons scout. Giants coaches played it down, but while Nagata has above average speed, he is no burner and one can expect the opposition to take full advanatage of Petagine's shortcomings. A Hiroshima scout thinks that Nagata has major tools and will soon make an impact for the Giants.... Southpaw Gary Rath could only hump it up to about 82mph in batting practice and opposition scouts were delighted. Giants coaches were not and stopped having Rath's velocity posted on the scoreboard. Rath features a slider and changeup and told Sankie Sports he is confident of being able to get Japanese hitter out. He won 16 games in Korea last season.... Another lefty, Kimiyasu Kudoh, is going to miss a scheduled start on March 6th due to a calf problem as well as an appearance he had been penciled in for on February 28th. Kudoh did some aerobics Friday, but didn't throw....Rodney Pedraza was also on the hill and a scout for Chunichi thought that Rodney's stuff was subpar for him....Bailey, though, was praised for having a good slide step and showing a good glove.

Yakult The little lefthander Masanori Ishikawa is scheduled to throw today in a practice game against the KBO's SK Wyverns....Catcher Atsuya Furuta received 20 boxes of chocolate from female admirers Friday, half of team leader Akinori Iwamura's 40.

Chunichi Reliever Daisuke Yamai threw four shutout innings on three hits in an intrasquad game Friday. He is battling with veteran Masahiro Yamamoto, who was awful the first half of last season, for the number five starter's job....Outfielder Yoshimi Sakurai got some instruction from Shigeo Nagashima Friday and then went out and went 0-3 with a walk in an intrasquad game. Mr. Giants likes Sakurai's body and thinks he can hit for some power in the CL.

Hanshin Hideki Irabu had a light workout Friday, playing catch and doing some weightlifting. He says his throat is feeling better everyday and he plans to be back in the pen Saturday....Shop owners in Aki, Kochi Prefecture, a Tigers spring training site, have gotten together and erected a five foot high statue of a Tiger standing on its hind legs in the parking lot of a local shopping area. Inscribed on it is, "Tigers are number one" ....Outfielder Osamu Hamanaka took 129 swings in batting practice and homered 25 times Friday, six of those going into the so-called "Deer net" at the back of the leftfield bleachers. The net is named for former major leaguer Rob Deer, who had a short stay with the Tigers.

Hiroshima The Carp's defensive coach hit the roof Friday during a simulated game when his team made five errors on its first 15 plays. He called a team meeting after it was over and berated his charges about making careless mistakes. Hiroshima has lead the Central League in errors each of the last four years.

Yokohama Righthander Takashi Saito missed a running drill Friday due to leg pain, but he did throw 115 pitches in the bullpen. Saito is apparently going to go back into the rotation after closing the last couple of season, but at this point, he may not be ready to start a game until the end of the instructional league schedule, which ends after the exhibition slate does. Then when he would start after opening day is very much up in the air....After the Machine Gun Offense became the squrt gun offense last season, the team's batting order has a new nickname, "the big chance lineup." That name was invented by Brazil-born soccer writer Sergio Echigo and is a play on manager Daisuke Yamashita's nickname ("Dai-chan"). Not very pretty, but the top six in their order this year has a chance to do some real damage. Now will they have enough pitching to be competitive?....Reliever Atsushi Kizuka, who the Stars are waiting for to finally blossom, threw 155 pitches in the bullpen Friday, a lot of them sinkers.

Seibu Even though the Pacific League has the DH rule, ace Daisuke Matsuzaka took batting practice Friday, jacking 32 homers in 195 swings at Haruno Stadium. "This was to help me strengthen my lower body," the righthander told Sports Nippon. He experienced some discomfort in his quadraceps afterward, but rest will do away with that. Before the hitting session, Matsuzaka threw 43 pitches in the bullpen.... Shortstop Kazuo Matsui was working on keeping his swing compact from both sides of the plate today, and cleared the fences only six times in 243 hacks. If there was a downside to the PL Gakuen grad's epic campaign in 2002, it was the career high 112 whiffs he racked up. Hopefully, he can cut that down....Righthander Chang Chia-chiah threw batting practice Friday and experienced control problems, culling a mere 18 strikes in 51 pitches. Pitching coach Hirohisa Matsunuma was not a happy camper, especially since Chang reported out of shape. The Taiwanese second year man, though, stated that he was working on his mechanics and that the results of this display were meaningless. However, Chang's main flaw last season was his stamina and so far those questions continue to haunt someone who many scouts think belongs in MLB right now....Fumiya Nishiguchi, who won 15 games last season, was working on his location while throwing batting practice Friday and looked solid.

Daiei Catcher Kenji Johjima launched one completely out of the park and threw two runners out from his knees in a simulated game Friday. That throw was clocked at 1.79 seconds, which is faster than Yakult backstop Atsuya Furuta's 1.81 seconds. Johjima was pegging it at about 1.97 seconds up through last season, so he's improved his throwing considerably....All time Japanese wins leader Masaichi Kaneda tutored rookie Tsuyoshi Wada Friday on how to take some of the stress off of his arm by using his lower body better. Wada, who received an astonishing 257 boxes of chocolate from female fans for Valentine's Day, was scheduled to take part in that simulated game, but is experiencing discomfort in both legs and his shoulder, so he was rested. Kaneda never blew his arm out despite routinely throwing over 300 innings a season for the Kokutetsu Swallows, so the 400 victory Hall of Fame inductee knows whereof he speaks.

Kintetsu The team has still not received word from reliever Akinori Otsuka as to when he will be back. If he doesn't get into camp soon, he is likely to miss the entire exhibition season. Maybe he is hoping that the Buffs will release him so that he can pursue his dream of playing in MLB....Jeremy Powell watched video Friday of last season's outings with Dodgers' coach Ken Howell to analyze where Powell, who won 17 games in 2002, could do better....Pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma is a favorite with the Buffs female fans. Last season, he received 130 boxes of chocolate on Valentine's Day, but after marrying his wife, Madoka, in December, that declined to 80 this time around. Madoka sent her husband a chocolate cake via a delivery service. In Japan, Valentine's Day is for women giving the objects of their affections boxes of chocolate. The men then reciprocate on White Day in March.

Nippon Ham Manager Trey Hillman visited a pre-school near his team's spring training camp Friday and received portraits of himself drawn by 35 children. He also told the press that his familiy will arrive in Japan in March.

Lotte Manager Koji Yamamoto will have his starters work on five days rest. There will also be a change of routine for Nate Minchey, who went on four days rest last season. Like his rotation mates, he will be going every six days as well....Ace Tomohiro Kuroki received 78 boxes of chocolate from female fans on Valetine's Day. Second baseman Bobby Rose saw 29 come in for him, but number one draft choice Tsuyoshi Nishioka was bummed when he didn't get any....Speaking of Kuroki, he will appear in an intrasquad game on the 26th.

Orix Despite some residual leg pain, righthander Masato Yoshii threw 73 pitches in the bullpen. He said that he felt good after playing catch, so he decided to mosy off to the pen.

Miscellaneous Spring training has done a lot for a town in Okinawa, but that enclave also has its drawbacks, as this item from Japan Update demonstrates: "Camp officially opened Feb. 1, and local officials estimate that some 15,000 people have visited the village every day, hoping to get a glimpse of the sports heroes. Crowds include more than 200 reporters and cameramen assigned to cover the training. Ginoza has no hotels, forcing the media and visiting public to trek to the training camp every day from other locations across the island." It further goes on to say that the community is mostly known for being a potato farming area....Hideki Matsui took 74 swings Friday in batting practice and homered just four times. One thing that has been missed in the reports in the U.S. press about Reggie Jackson working with Godzilla is that Reggie compares the former Yomirui outfielder to Cardinals great Ted Simmons as a hitter, "though Matsui has more power." Matsui will get a chance to hit off of Roger Clemens on the 18th, when the multi-Cy Young Award winner will throw batting practice. "I wonder if I'll get the bat on the ball against him," fretted the Ishikawa native. Matsui has also changed his hand position since he believes MLB pitchers go through their motion quicker than the ones in Japan do, so he has moved his hands back while waiting for the ball....Hideo Nomo threw 35 pitches in his bullpen session at Vero Beach while lefty Kazuhisa Ishii worked on holding runners on Friday. Nomo said that he is following the routine that he always has. He needs just two more shiroboshi for 100 career wins in MLB ....Here's an interesting idea: a non profit group in Naha, Okinawa in cooperation with the Japanese player's association is collecting broken and mis-manufactured bats and is having them remade into chopsticks and spoons which will be resold at ballparks.

Today's Pictures

Ichiro Suzuki in the Batting Cage

Derek Jeter Watches Hideki Matsui Take Batting Practice

Matsui and Reggie

Koji Uehara Looking for a Place to Put His Forkball

Takashi Saito During His Throwing Session

Masahiro Nagata Yanks One Down the Line

Shigeo Nagashima Watches Rookie Yoshimi Sakurai

Trey Hillman Makes Some Future Baseball Fans

Gary Rath Wipes His Brow After His Workout

Ishii Shows No Ill Effects of Fractured Skull

See story at: Palm Beach Post Article