Central League Report

6/7/2004


No Games Today

Team Reports


Hanshin
Leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto has homered in 27 different ballparks during his career. Now with the Tigers playing at Fukui Prefectural Stadium Tuesday, he has a chance at making it 28. He's also never  transgressed the confines of Sapporo Dome and will endeavor to change that during games there in July and August. 
 


Yomiuri
Hisanori Takahashi will make a rehab start on the ninth and then will be elevated to the top team shortly thereafter if he does well. He is currently projected to make his first big club outing on the 17th since going down with an ankle injury in late April.  Outfielder Tuffy Rhodes was fined by the Central League office $450 for being ejected arguing balls and strikes during a game on the fourth. He was also given the usual reprimand. 
 


Yakult
New pitcher Dickey Gonzalez will make $270,000 this season, according to Sports Nippon.  Lefthander Shugo Fujii says he still needs to lose another 6-7 pounds after the long layoff he had due to elbow surgery. 


Miscellaneous
Due to the rainy weather, industrial league nine Shidax manager Katsuya Nomura called the Yomiuri Giants MNonday morning and asked if they could use the kyojin's practice facility. The request 
was approved, but a problem later arose. Giants righthander Hiroshi Kisanuki showed up early to do some running but wasn't allowed in due to him being a pro and the Shidax players are technically  amateurs. So Kisanuki had to do his running in the rain at another facility. How absurd. Anyway, soon to be number one draft choice Takahiko Nomaguchi threw 50 pitches in the bullpen with Hanshin scouts looking on. And, for whatever reason, the press wasn't 
allowed to take photographs. 

According to Sankei Sports, back in 2000, Kyushu Community College was allowed to use the Giants facility to prepare for a tournament while one of the Yomiuri coaches was putting his pros through some drills. The Japan Scholastic Baseball Federation suspended Kyuhu's head coach for one year for that, probably afraid that the collegians would catch some cooties. Or something. Sheesh. 

St. Louis outfielder So Taguchi singled in four at bats Monday against the Chicago Cubs in a 4-3 loss. 

Officials of the Japanese olympic baseball team say that they will take 13 position players and 11 pitchers. The arms will consist of seven righthanders anf four lefties. They were originally talking about an even split, but a concern about injuries complelled them to 

 favor taking more position players. 

Angels GM Bill Stoneman told Hochi Sports that they are keeping an eye on former Seibu reliever Yoshitaka Mizuo in hopes he can help the lefthanded side of their bullpen in the second half. Mizuo is currently with Anaheim's Salt Lake City affiliate in AAA. 

Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki went 2-5 Monday against Houston, one of them a ground rule double that would have been an easy triple 
if it hadn't bounced off the warning track and into the crowd in rightcenter. The M's, who are starting to play like they did when they went on a tear around this time last season, won it 5-0 behind a strong six inning first  big league start by rookie Clint Negeotte, who displayed a really filthy slider, a nice sinker and a low 90's fastball. 
Getting back to Ichiro, though, he has 30 multihit games and has gone 34 straight games reaching base safely. He is also in the midst of a 14 game hitting spree. He is currently at .341. 

Mets shortstop Kazuo Matsui was off Monday, but in the National League all star voting, he is still third behind Edgar Renteria and Adam Everett. 

Tohoku High School righthander Yu Darvish threw four scoreless innings Monday in a tournament game against Seiko Gakuin High. He was clocked at 89mph. Nippon Ham is saying that they will try to sign him for the November draft.