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02/26/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Giants Stubbornly Sticking With Petagine in Right"
Team Reports
Yomiuri Giants coaches are in damage control mode regarding Roberto Petagine's defense in the outfield. Manager Tatsunori Hara said today that while the $8 million slugger hasn't been up to par defensively, he has displayed a good attitude in practice. Petagine is apparently going to remain in the outfield, too, even if first baseman Kazuhiro Kiyohara stays out with his hamstring injury. I'm sure that the pitching staff just loves hearing that...Pitcher Yusaku Iriki still has swelling around his right hamstring and the only exercise he can get in is walking around the club's dormitory....Another injured hurler, Kimiyasu Kudoh, threw 80 pitches in the bullpen as he recovers from a calf malady. He will throw again on the 28th.... Yomiuri's minor league aggregation beat Osaka Gas of the Japanese industrial leagues today in a practice game 6-2.... Catcher Shinnosuke Abe, 25, announced that he is moving out of the Giants dormitory and will live on his own in an apartment in Tokyo. Today is also the anniversary of his grandfather's death, so he went and visited his grave....Head coach Yoshitaka Katori told Hochi Sports that not all of the foreign players are going to open the regular season on the big club roster. Roberto Petagine and Rodney Pedraza are pretty much locks, so the pressure is on for Gary Rath and Cory Bailey, especially since Hiroki Sanada is likely to start the season in middle relief.
Yakult Kevin Hodges may be given the opening day assignment due to Shugo Fujii's elbow healing slowly after he injured it about a week ago. Masanori Ishikawa, who was rocked in a weekend exhibition appearance, is the other candidate.
Chunichi Outfielder Alex Ochoa didn't want to pick up his work visa in South Korea due to renewed tensions with the North, so he will instead pick it up in Guam, according to Chunichi Sports. He will start in an exhibition game on the 5th.... Masahiro Yamamoto will start a practice game against the LG Twins. He is training in the Dragons minor league camp.
Hanshin In hopes that it will give him a better feel for reading the wind currents in Koshien Stadium, outfielder Osamu Hamanaka, who has played center and left so far with the Osaka nine, will work out tomorrow in right there. The wind tends to blow from right to left at Koshien, making judging fly balls a bit nettlesome.... Hideki Irabu will make an instructional league start on March 4th.
Hiroshima Manager Koji Yamamoto said he was satisfied with how his players performed during their spring stop in Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture and was especially eleated that nobody got hurt....If Sankei Sports is correct, third baseman Takahiro Arai will be the team's cleanup hitter this season. He went yard 15 times in 62 swings in batting practice today.
Yokohama Kenichi Wakatabe, who came over as a free agent from Daiei this past offseason, pitched in a simulated game today and went two innings of shutout ball on one hit. He is expected to start on the fifth against Nippon Ham in an exhibition game....Stars manager Daisuke Yamashita was a defensive wizard during his playing days and today he attempted to impart some of those skills to third baseman Katsuaki Furuki, whose is weak in that area. No word, though, on the results of the special instructional session....Number one draftee Ryutaro Doi threw in a simulated game today and didn't fare too well, giving up three hits and a run to the eight men he faced. He will make his exhibition game debut on the 2nd against Seibu.
Seibu Ace righty Daisuke Matsuzaka threw in an intrasquad game today and gave up a run on two hits in three innings of work while striking out six. The differences between this outing and his previous intrasquad effort was that he wasn't overthrowing and he came inside much more this time. He was also focused on working quickly. He was clocked at 91mph....Third baseman Scott McClain homered off of Takashi Ishii in that game, which ended in a 4-4 tie....According to Sankei Sports, first baseman Alex Cabrera has put on 35 pounds this winter to 255. The even bigger than last season slugger arrived in Japan today and said that he's at about 50% of game shape, but that with two or three weeks of workouts he will be ready to go....Fumiya Nishiguchi also pitched in that intrasquad affair and fashioned two innings of one hit shutout baseball....Shogo Akada started in center and went 2-3 batting leadoff. He began switch hitting last September and is 6-13 on the spring when exhibition and intrasquad games are totalled up....Number one draft choice Shuichiro Osada gave up a run on a bases loaded single in the eighth to finish his two innings having given up that tally on three hits....Another rookie, Chikara Onodera, was hammered for three runs on five hits in two innings.
Kintetsu Infielder Katsumi Yamashita is still doing damage this spring, as he mortared his seventh big fly of the spring off of a slider from reliever Akira Okamoto in an intrasquad game today completely out of the ballpark. Rookie Shinji Shimoyama, who homered twice in his first ever pro exhibition game, doubled to right in this one. Yamashita is said to look like a character out of a manga called Dokonjogaeru and thus has been bestowed with the nickname of "ume (plum)"....Speedster Akihito Moritani had three hits and a steal, though he did get himself caught in a rundown, too thanks to a baserunning mistake....Kevin Beirne was in today's game, too and went three scoreless innings on three hits and has thrown six consecutive goose eggs in intrasquad competition. He will start on March 5th in an exhibition game against the Hiroshima Carp at Osaka Dome.
Nippon Ham According to Sankei Sports, a thief got into the Fighters locker room at their spring training camp in Nago, Okinawa and made off with one of first baseman Michihiro Ogasawara's mits as well as equipment from other other players. Security will be bolstered, though there is a suspicion that this may be an inside job....Pitcher Itsuki Shoda threw 55 pitches in the bullpen today....Catcher Kazunari Sanematsu was able to participate in today's intrasquad game....Speaking of Ogasawara, he homered to right off of a sinker from Tateishi in an intrasquad game today, his first jack of the spring. Batting instructor Gary Denbo calls the Gold Glove first sacker "a great hitter."
Lotte First baseman Kazuya Fukuura continues to hit everything in site this spring. In an intrasquad game today, he went 1-1 with a walk. A bad first half cost Fukuura a possible shot at the batting title after he won that crown in 2001. Putting more pressure on Fukuura was well is that he is now hitting cleanup after the departure of Bobby Rose even though he really isn't a longball hitter, but more of a gap guy....Shigeo Nagashima visited the team's camp today and spent an hour with both Fukuura and outfielder Saburo Omura talking over hitting. A lot of the players were rather shy around Japan's Mr. Baseball, talking to him as if he was the emperor or something....Nathan Minchey went two scoreless innings, breaking a hitter's bat as he pounded fastballs on the inner half of the plate....Closer Masahide Kobayashi went an inning, entering during a bases loaded, nobody out situation and fanning the first two men he saw and then retiring the other.
Orix Centerfielder Yoshitomo Tani had his first knock in spring intrasquad action today, thwacking an RBI double to left in the fifth inning. Tani says that he wants to improve his power numbers this season, though he isn't built like a big bomber. Last season, he collected five dingers.... Rookie catcher Daisuke Maeda had two hits in that contests and will start an exhibition game against Hanshin at Kobe Green Stadium on March 1st. In six intrasquad matches, he is 9-15, a .600 clip.... Righthander Makoto Suzuki threw 73 pitches in the bullpen today, exhibiting his amazingly rapid recuperative powers from a calf muscle pull on the 22nd that was supposed to keep him out for three weeks or more.... Masahiko Kaneda, the 2002 PL ERA champ, twirled two shutout innings on two hits, both on curve balls to Hiroyuki Oshima and Yuji Goshima.
Hideki Matsui According to MLB.com, Yankees manager Joe Torre says that Matsui will be given games off during the season, which would bring an end to his consecutive games played streak that now stands at 1250 and counting. On the streak itself, Torre told the Hartford Courant, "The problem with those streaks is, you become handcuffed by them." That's true Joe, but those kinds of stats also keep people talking about your team....Matsui will have a chance to get reacquainted with the Cincinnati Reds' Ryan Dempster tomorrow in an exhibition game. The two faced each other previously during the 2000 NPB-MLB all star series....Matsui took 350 swings in a special batting practice session overseen by instructor Rick Down. In the regular workout, he homered twice in 34 swings. In a postentially ominous indication of the trouble he is going to have with MLB hurlers, he said that he had trouble catching up with the velocity of the two minor leaguers who he faced in that intrasquad game....TBS, a Tokyo based tv station that will broadcast the Reds-Yankees game back in Japan, will have a camera dedicated to following Matsui around during the contest.
Miscellaneous Former Yokohama Bay Stars outfielder Anthony Sanders, who had a real tough time in Japan, is now with the Chicago White Sox. Shame about his son dying, though after heart valve surgery....Just a note on the Reggie Jackson becoming part of an ownership group that would buy the Angels: Jackson did a trememdous job as a commentator in the Angels' broadcast booth a few years ago and it would be interesting to see what he would do in a position of authority with a ballclub. As a player, he really wasn't somebody who I really liked that much since he was a mouthy egotist. So we'll see how this works out if he and his associates can make the purchase happen....Mariners rookie outfielder Chris Snelling, a native of Australia, is quickly becoming one of the characters in the game. This item from the Olympian in Olympia Washington: "Chris Snelling was a little droopy-eyed Tuesday morning, for good reason. His dog, Barnold, was sick most of the night after eating a nine-pound box of Gummy Bears in Snelling's apartment. "And before he got to the Gummy Bears, he ate the box," Snelling said. The paper apparently didn't ask just what Snelling was doing with a nine pound box of gummies, though. But I get the feeling a nickname could be born out of this. And Snelling? Think an Aussie combination of Darin Erstad and Rex Hudler ....The Japanese High School Baseball Federation reprimanded Toyodai Himeji High School after one of its junior varsity players was caught stealing a magazine from a convenience store. The ruling, however, will not affect the school's ability to participate in the Koshien Spring High School Baseball Tournament...Cardinals outfielder So Taguchi went hitless in two at bats, neither time transgressing the infield. Batting coach Mitchell Page averred that Taguchi has a stronger swing this season than last.
Today's Pictures
Daisuke Matsuzaka Brushes Tatsuya Ozeki Back in Intrasquad Game
Daisuke Matsuzaka Just About to Release the Ball
Trey Hillman is Swarmed by Autograph Seekers
Makoto Suzuki Dring Today's Workout
Takahiro Arai in Batting Practice
Giambi Plays Matsui's Answer Man
There have so far been a boatload of stories likes this one on how the Yankees have welcomed Hideki Matsui into the fold, but what about Jose Contreras? Unless those stories have been confined to the Spanish language press. Anyway, see story at: NY Post Article
Steinbrenner Asks Press to Take it Easy on Matsui
Hey George, here's a suggestion: don't issue any credentials to the L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke, who has it in for Japanese players, imho. See story at: Greenwich Time Article
Choo Impresses Mariners
See story at: The Olympian Article
One Last Home Run
This is another story on that Canadian Nisei team: Ottawa Citizen Article
On Spring Training
See story at: Chicago Tribune Article
Replies: 1 Comment
Most players have trouble catching up to a pitcher's velocity this time of year. So why should it be "potentially ominous" for his MLB success? Sounds like the Godzilla bashing will start early this year.
Posted by Kenji @ 02/26/2003 11:23 PM EST
