In any event, Tomori said that he wants to make some starts this season and rack up innings and win some games for the Nagoya side. He will make roughly $400,000 in salary with another approximately $40,000 in incentives. 

Light hitting Hiroyuki Watanabe and career backup Masahiko Morino will compete for the third base job along with incumbent Kazuyoshi Tatsunami. 

Hanshin In addition to the new indoor practice facility that they have already built in Ginoza, Okinawa, which will be their intial spring camp site, Hanshin also wishes to build a large resort hotel that will have its players stay at in future springs. Right now, the players have to commute from Onomura. 

Industrial league draftee Ryo Watanabe was inspired by Hideki Irabu's return to Japan in 2003 by adding a circle change to his repetoire. He says he found out about the pitch because Irabu threw it. Watanabe, who claims he batted cleanup in high school and posted an average of around .500, looks forward to hitting in the Central League. But one believes that the Tigers are more interested in what Watanabe will do with his fastball,. curve, slider and forkball, which he has in addition to the changeup. 

Reliever Kyuji Fujikawa pronounced himself relaxed and healthy today as he looks to pitch in the World Baseball Classic. He also said that the MLB ball, which is six millimeters larger than the Japanese ball, isn't a problem. 

Hanshin's minor league team will welcome a batting instructor from the SK Wyverns during spring training. The coach, whose last name is Kim (sorry, but Japanese papers insist on using kanji for Korean names rather than katakana and I don't know the Korean pronounciation for kanji, which is often quite different) is a one time batting champ and retired after last season. 

Catcher Akihiro Yano set his homer goal for the coming season at 20. Last year, he clubbed 19. 

Pitcher Takashi Aiki is looking forward to facing his old team, Orix, in spring training. "It will be like an intrasquad game," Aiki lightheartedly speculated. 

Rookie pitcher Minoru Iwata cut a video message today for diabetic support group IDDM Network. Iwata himself suffers form type one diabetes. 

Rookie pitcher Ryuji Wakatake is a huge James Bond fan. "Ive seen just about all the [Bond films]," said the youngster, later going on to say that if he does well enough, he doesn't want to be nicknamed "Wakatake Bond," but "James Wakatake."  The Tigers hope he is the Man with the Golden Arm. 

Former Tigers great Yoshio Yoshida, who managed the team to a pennant in 1985, was at a party at a Hyogo Prefecture hot springs today and expressed disappointment that Hanshin didn't make any big trades to provide what he termed "new stimulation." He analogized it with his 1985 club and how that team was almost totally unchanged the following year. They would finish third in 1986 and last in 1987 and Yoshida got the boot. Yoshida was also dismayed that the only new foreign player who excited anyone was pitcher Chris Oxspring. So Yoshida is counting on the younger Tigers players to step up to give the team its first ever back to back pennants.

He contrasted what Hanshin was doing with the signings of Kazuhiro Kiyohara and Norihiro Nakamura by Orix. However, one has to wonder if adding high priced aging talent, especially somebody with Kiyohara's recent injury history, is the best way to spend money. Yoshida apparently thinks so. 

For those of you thinking of attending the exhibition games at Koshien and Osaka Dome, Lawson's convenience stores will have info about how to get tickets through them. 

Yakult Lefthander Kazuhisa Ishii said that he will decide who to work for this season on the 20th, though the rumors continue to say that he is going to return to the Swallows. 

Yokohama The Bay Stars announced today that they have acquired former Yakult righthander Jason Beverlin. Beverlin was released by the Swallows after he suffered a season ending elbow injury that required surgery in 2004. He will be slotted into the rotation, further strengthening a resurgent outfit.

Rookie pitcher Shun Yamaguchi will donate a 1.5 million yen pitching machine to his high school alma mater. "They are the reason I am where I am," he said. 

Yomiuri Lefthander Tetsuya Utausmi had his first bullpen session of the pre-season Monday, throwing 48 pitches. He told the press afterward that his arm felt better this year than last at the same time. 

Another southpaw, Yukinaga Maeda, hurled 41 pitches as well during his workout. 

And making it the trifecta of non-righties, new addition Shigeki Noguchi did some long tossing Monday at a Giants workout facility. He revealed that he will get into the pen as soon as spring training formally opens February 1st. 

The rookies were made to run a 3K today and Yuji Aida and Hiroshi Umeda finished on top at 11:25 and 12:21 while Satoshi Fukuda brought up the rear at 14:04 along with Masafumi Togano at 14:16. Aida, the son of a former pitcher, ran track in junior high and obviously put that experience to good use here. His best mile at school was a reported 4:28.

Former Yakult moundsman Shigeki Nakamoto has been appointed Yomiuri's Asian scout.He will oversee scouting in China, Taiwan and Korea. He is also a former pitching coach for the Makoto Cobras of the Taiwan pro league. 

The Giants announced their new uniforms for this season. You can see them by clicking on the pic Here .

Miscellaneous Live Door president Takafumi Horie, who attempted to buy the Kintetsu Buffaloes two years ago, has been accused of securities fraud. According to press reports, Horie was said to have circulated false information about the profit picture of one of his subsidiaries, Value Click Japan, in order to try to boost the value of his stock in that firm. As of right now, he hasn't been arrested, but Live Door's offices in the tony Roppongi Hills section of Tokyo have been searched by police and employees interviewed as part of the investigation. 

After an earlier report had indicated that there was no real MLB interest in pitcher Yusaku Iriki, the righthander will leave for the U.S. tomorrow to reportedly view the details of what are being characterized as several offers from big league nines. Sports Nippon named Baltimore, Los Angeles and the New York Mets as three of those teams. 

The movement of players in Japan is perhaps about to get messier. According to Hochi Sports, a so-called rental isseki (allowing one's players to be temporarily assigned to another team) system could be introduced as early as this season. As the discussions stand now, ten ballclubs reportedly approve and so does the players association, but two teams are concerned about scouting info getting out as well as injury and pay issues and have expressed opposition for now. New draftees and foreign players wouldn't be allowed to be part of this scheme. I hate this idea, as it is the soccerization of baseball plus it essentially makes teams developmental mechanisms for less experienced players who are under control of the opposition. The possibilities for corruption are endless. 

However, it does look as if there will be changes made in the free agent system and maybe even free agency for minor leaguers with little experience at the top club level. There are also ongoing talks about what to do with the posting system. 

Japan reportedly wants to remove pitch count restrictions for the WBC, but that is unlikely, as a technical committee appears ready to settle on a 65 pitch limit for the early round, 80 for the second and 95 for the final rounds. Moreover, if a reliever goes over a dictated pitch count two days running, he would be foreced to sit down for the next four days.  

In order to generate more scoring and up the quality of play, the body that governs Japan's nanshiki (a cowhide baseball with a rubberized center) leagues is going to a new ball that acts more like a real baseball, according to Chunichi Sports. "One day, there will actually be nanshiki players drafted by the pros," said Shunsuke Kitamura, who manages in the nanshiki leagues and who is a former Chunichi Dragon. No nanshiki player has been drafted by an NPB club in recent times. Former Hiroshima great Yutaka Ono, a probable future hall of famer, was signed out of the nanshiki leagues, but only after a tryout. The current ball doesn't really go anywhere unless you get it right on the sweet end of the barrell of the bat, so games tend to turn into pitching duels, one game on record even going 45 innings, the longest game in Japanese baseball history on any level. 

No A-Rod for the U.S. WBC team. Nice!

Chiba Eiwa High School baseball coach Norikazu Ozawa died at age 41 yesterday of liver cancer. Ozawa played second base for Waseda Jitsugyo High School during the time when Daisuke Araki, who is now Seibu's pitching coach, was that team's ace, going to five Koshien Tournament berths. After graduation, he became an assistant coach for his alma mater and then took the job in Chiba. He never played pro ball.