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02/18/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Oh Likes Taking it on the Chen"
Team Reports
Yomiuri First baseman Kazuhiro Kiyohara got some hitting instruction from Lotte and Chunichi great Hiromitsu Ochiai today, focusing on keeping his front shoulder closed.. ..Ochiai did a tremendous job into making Kintetsu third baseman Norihiro Nakamura a much better hitter two seasons back and now we'll have to see if his tutoring of Kiyohara bears fruit. In any event, the brawny former Lion belted ten homers in 56 swing off of a tee....Southpaw Hisanori Takahashi started an intrasquad game today and went three strong innings of one hit shutout ball. He struckout Roberto Petagine with a curve ball, not a pitch that the sinker-slider oriented Takahashi is usually known for, to highlight his stint on the hill....Petagine, though, embarrassed himself in the field, as he misjudged a little fly ball off the bat of shortstop Tomohiro Nioka to right and saw it fall in front of him, cracking up the opposition scouts who were sitting behind the plate. Because he is awkward going back on the ball, Giants coaches are having him play deep. Obviously, didn't do him any good there....There was quite a bit of unease among Giants coaches when lefty Gary Rath was throwing well south of 85mph last Friday, but in an intrasquad game today, he went three economical innings of one hit ball, getting pretty fair mileage with his sinker and changeup. His heater? Maxed out at 84-85mph. But he's one of those guys who makes you want to grab a bat, as he only threw 28 pitches, 21 of them strikes....Reliever Hideki Okajima went two innings and was cuffed around for five hits and two runs, both tallies coming on a two run double to leftcenter by catcher Shinnosuke Abe.... Righthander Masumi Kuwata was in the bullpen today for a 105 pitch workout, displaying a lively shuuto while wife Maki looked on from the stands....Rookie Hiroshi Kisanuki was also throwing in the pen and delivered 84 pitches, working with head coach Yoshitaka Katori on keeping his fastball from drifting back out over the plate....Ace Koji Uehara, centerfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi and Abe visited Miyazaki Southern High School and Miyazaki Kaiyo High School today. Both schools are winless this season so far....Masahiro Nagata, whose usual position is shortstop, was stationed at second in today's intrasquad game. After it was over, coach Tetsuo Shinozuka worked with Nagata on his footwork turning the double play.
Yakult Kintetsu closer Shingo Takatsu threw 50 pitches in the pen yesterday. He won't see any game action until March. The righthanded sidearmer needs just four more saves to overtake Kazuhiro Sasaki on the all time saves list....Lefthander Shugo Fujii felt some discomfort in his elbow during a 50 pitch bullpen session today and went for an MRI. He will then be re-examined tomorrow. Skipper Tsutomu Wakamatsu then complained that players have been told that they should shut themselves down before any aches and pains turn into something significant. Fujii will not throw for at least three days to help heal the problem and will take some electro-stim treatments.
Chunichi Outfielder Alex Ochoa will make $2 million plus incentives with the Dragons this season and wear number 22. He will be registered as "Alex," since his last name reminds team officials of the word, "ochokochoi," which means, "a careless person" in Japanese. He is expected to arrive in Japan Saturday.... Rookie Yoshimi Sakurai will penciled into the four hole asn a DH in a practice game against the KBO's LG Twins tomorrow.
Hanshin Yuya Ando will start on the 23rd against Seibu....The Tigers front office announced that it is building a $7 million 3600 square meter indoor practice facility on a patch of ground to the west of Koshien Stadium.
Hiroshima Outfielder Jimmy Hurst went 0-2 in a simulated game today and was reportedly upset with the difference between the U.S. and Japanese strike zones to the point where he ignored reporters by putting in some earphones. He cooled off later on and offered a couple of comments, but the stress of adjusting to new surroundings appears to be bothering him right now....Southpaw Alan Newman threw batting practice today and after watching him , manager Koji Yamamoto said that Newman's stuff had good life and he will get a starting shot....Shortstop Andy Sheets went 2-2 and Yamamoto is contemplating putting him in the two hole.
Seibu Manager Haruki Ihara, 54, never graduated from Shibaura Industrial University, so he's decided to re-enroll to finish his degree. Ihara was a number two draft choice in 1970 by the Lions, who were owned by Nishitetsu at the time, and ended up two units short of taking his degree. He will commute to school after the season is over and should be able to graduate in spring....Reliever Kenichi Toriyabe worked three perfect innings in an intrasquad game today, effectively utilizing a forkball he just added to his arsenal. The 6'3" 23 year old is hoping to earn a rotation spot....Daisuke Matsuzaka will throw in an intrasquad game tomorrow. He is slated to go two innings. In preparation for that, he was in the bullpen for 77 pitches today....Toshiaki Inubushi, who was slotted in against lefthanders season and hit over .300 against them, cracked a pair of knocks in today's intrasquad battle against two righthanders. In 2002, inclusive of exhibition games, regular season games and even intrasquad affairs, he had four hits total. Now THAT is a platoon player.
Daiei Taiwanese import Chen Wen-pin homered to right in the seventh with a man on as part of a two hit day in an intrasquad game today. Chen actually just missed on the swing, getting more toward the end of the bat, but he has enough bat speed that the ball left anyway to the opposite field. If things go smoothly for Chen, he is likely to hit sixth or seventh in the order when the regular season commences....First baseman Nobuhiko Matsunaka also went yard during the festivities, a two run shot to rightcenter in the fourth....Keisaburo Inoue went two innings of one run ball on three hits, walking two and being consistently behind the hitters....Rookie Nagisa Arakaki will start an intrasquad game tomorrow and is scheduled to go three innings....Hayato Terahara threw 220 pitches today in the bullpen after throwing batting practice yesterday.
Kintetsu Hisashi Iwakuma started an intrasquad game today and spun four innings of shutout ball with deliveries that had good movement, striking out Nakamura at one point on three pitches. He will start an exhibition game against Yomiuri on the 23rd....Closer Akinori Otsuka phoned the Buffs front office Sunday and said that if they agree to post him after the season was over, he would report to spring training. The ballclub is receptive to that demand, but Otsuka still seems torn as to what he really wants to do and this little soap opera looks as if it is going to drag on further. This came on the heels of a report yesterday in Nikkan Sports that Otsuka was beginning to chomp at the bit to get going, so we'll have to see which report proves to be the more accurate....Katsuhiko Maekawa was tutored by Hall of Fame inductee Keishi Suzuki during a bullpen session today while manager Masataka Nashida acted as the catcher.
Nippon Ham Satoru Kanemura was on the hill during an intrasquad game and struckout two during a two inning, one hit stint. He got behind the hitters, but was able to ultimately get them out. Manager Trey Hillman gave an encouraging evaluation: "that was pretty good for the first time out"....Reliever Hiroshi Shibakusa went a scoreless inning on one hit....Infielder Kuniyuki Kimoto, who is competing with Yukio Tanaka and Takaya Hayashi for the third base job, homered to center in the ninth on the way to a two hit day....Hillman has scheduled a night practice from 5:00 p.m.to 7:30 p.m, apparently as a way to prepare the club for playing in the evening when the regular season begins.
Lotte Second baseman Bobby Rose was examined at a hospital this morning after suffering heart palpitations yesterday. It is believed that the intense Rose is stressed out....Tomohiro Kuroki is going to resume throwing on the 20th. Kuroki did a little long tossing and that was about it today.
Orix Ryoko "Yawara" Tamura, who will marry Orix centerfielder Yoshitomo Tani later this year, was swarmned by tv cameras and reporters at the airport when she got off the plane to head to Miyakojima, where Orix' training camp is. Other travellers, spotting Tamura, made the 2000 olymipc judo gold medalist blush when they yelled "congratulations Tani-fujin! "Fujin is a term that denotes a married woman....Makoto Suzuki said that he doesn't want to be eligible for Rookie of the Year. "Let a young player have it," he remarked. What may bristle some about this is that Suzuki has major league experience and yet NPB is apparently willing to make him eligible for the award while foreign players are not. Maybe they should call it, "Japanese Rookie of the Year" ....Masato Yoshii threw batting practice today and said that his 47 pitch outing was "okay"....Infielder Yuji Goshima homered in today's intrasquad game.
Miscellaneous Hideki Matsui's batting practice today with the Yankees was televised back to Japan for the evening news, according to the Newark Star-Ledger. He launched six homers in 51 swings and was in the same group as Raul Mondesi, Juan Rivera, Rondell White and Bernie Williams. Once that was done, he engaged in a defensive drill...Hey, nice job by the St. Petersburg Times in assigning an article where Hideki Matsui and the Japanese media are mentioned to Emily Nipps....The NY Post referred to Matsui today as the "Yankees marketing tool/leftfielder." And to their credit, they got the priorities in the right order....British online bookmaker Sportingbet noted in an ETaiwan News article that "with its small population of 23 million,[Taiwan] is the world's second largest market for NBA and MLB [gambling]." Is Pete Rose first? Sorry, couldn't resist.... Sankei Sports ran a headline today on its website that said, "How About Hitting Fourth? Ichiro Hits Seven Over the Fence Out of 37 Swings." As it turns out, Ichiro was kidding with Mariners manager Bob Melvin today, reportedly saying, "how about putting me in the cleanup role? I'd hit more than [last year's] eight homers for sure." All of those longballs were off of Kazuhiro Sasaki. Back when the two were still playing in Japan, Ichiro went 2-3 over the course of three contests, one an exhibtion and the other two all star games. Each safety was a single....What did Cardinals outfielder So Taguchi think of his first season in MLB that he spent mostly in the minors? "If I can do what I ordinarily do, then I will be fine. But getting to that 'ordinary' is tough." He also admitted that he didn't really know what he was doing last year....M's closer Kazuhiro Sasaki threw 21 pitches in the bullpen today to warmup and then tossed another 42 to Mike Cameron, Ichiro and two others, mixing in the cutter he's working on....Dodgers lefty Kazuhisa Ishii worked on laying down sacrifice bunts today. Teammate Hideo Nomo threw batting practice.... Meitetsu Tourist Service, a major Japanese travel outfit, is reporting that it has sold 100 tour packages to see the Yankees and Mariners faceoff in Yankee Stadium for two games during the Japanese holiday Golden Week. They have another 50 people on a waiting list for the five day tour. They did that business within three days of putting the package, which runs in the neighborhood of $1300 per person, including airfare, on sale....The Pacific League will commence it's playoff system starting in 2004, when the second and third place clubs will play a best two out of three game series for the right to meet the first place nine. There will then be a five game set to for the Japan Series berth....Moreover, to make it more convenient scheduling wise, they may reduce the season to 135 games. Real dumb guys....Former Seibu slugger Orestes Destrade will be writing a column about the Yankees for MLB.com's Japanese language site, according to Nikkan Sports.
Today's Pictures
Ichiro Suzuki Takes Batting Practice off of Kazuhiro Sasaki
Hideki Matsui During Batting Practice Today
Ichiro-mania Quieter Than Usual
See story at: MLB.com Article
Matsui Spring Training Already a Zoo
See story at: Associated Press Article
See related story at: Jayson Stark Article
See another related story at: Japan Times Article
Slimy Tokyo Sports (Tospo) Gets Some Pub Via Matsui
See story at: Newark Star-Ledger Article
Ochoa Era Ends Before it Starts
See story at: MLB.com Article
Good on Dragons for Releasing Millar
See story at: Japan Times Article
New Bilingual Sports Paper Starting in Japan
See story at: Japan Times Article
Idiot School Administrators Screw Up Player's Future
Is there something genetic in the way that school administrators have to react all out of proportion to what actually occurred? This guy should be kicked out of class and given an F, but expelled? Are they serious? Yet more proof that the most useless people on any campus are the administrators. See story at:
Arizona Republic Article
