Ace Kenshin Kawakami, who is facing a pay cut, will meet with the front office for another hashing out of his proposed 2006 pay packet on the 26th. He is currently in Saipan for pre-season training.  

Closer Hitoki Iwase has been offered 300 million yen (somehwere around $2.5 million) and will meet with club officials Friday for further discussions. Last season, Iwase set new records for saves and save points. 

Hanshin It looks as if an exhibition game against Rakuten scheduled for March 7th at Nishi Kyogoku Stadium will be moved to Koshien Stadium due to projected fan demand. Nishi Kyogoku Stadium seats only 20,000 while Koshien Stadium's official capacity is 48,000, though it can often hold as many as 53,000. Katsuya Nomura, who lead the Tigers to a trio of last place finishes betwen 1999-2001, is Rakuten's shot caller. 

CL MVP Tomoaki Kanemoto reacted negatively to Kazuhisa Ishii's return to NPB and Yakult. "Go join the Pacific League, will ya?" the former Carp leftfielder smirked. "He has up and down years, but still, this is not good." In seven years of facing Ishii, Kanemoto, according to Sankei Sports, was 14-64 (.219) with one homer and six RBIs against Ishii. 

Shy southpaw Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, who has resurrected his career after coming to the Tigers, signed a two year deal worth a total of 350 million yen (about $3 million). That works out to a $475,000 a year or thereabouts raise for this season and he will take the same amount into 2007. Shimoyanagi, who did a lot of track training this pre-season in Okinawa, wants to be the oldest pitcher ever before he is done, looking at fellow lefthanders Masahiro Yamamoto (Chunichi, 40) and Kimiyasu Kudoh (Yomiuri, 42) as inspirations. 

Shimoyanagi also sent his best wishes trhough the press to former teammate Keiichi Yabu, who was picked up by Colorado this week. "Going to the majors at the age he did showed a lot of courage," Shimoyanagi said. 

Catcher Akihiro Yano, who reached the 40% mark last season in throwing base stealers out for the first time in his career last season (43.4%, in fact), now wants to shoot for 50%. However, he was successful in just 26% of his attempts to nip stolen base attempts in the bud during the interleague phase of the schedule, so he is hoping to vastly improve on that this time around to hit his goal. 

As a side note on Yano, you late bloomers out there might like this: when he was in high school, the Tigers backstop only connected for three homers total in his three years there. When you think of all the big high school sluggers whose pro careers went nowhere, well, it just goes to show how tricky player scouting and development can be. 

Hanshin's players and staff will be staying at the Hotel Moon Beach in Onomura for the fourth straight year this spring, but when they come next year, they will have more privacy. The hotel, which is celebrating its 30th year, is going to build a new annex at the scenic location that will be solely used by the ballclub during spring training. 

He wasn't expected to be fully ready until June, but righthander Taiyo Fujita will make an appearance on February 26th against Orix in Kochi, Kochi Prefecture. He has no pain in his shoulder and elbow and is progressing rapidly, so coaches probably want to see where he is at. This seems a little risky, though. Hanshin is almost farcially deep in pitching, so let's hope that Fujita is none the worse for wear as a result. 

Pinch hit specialist Kojiro Machida, who is likely on his way out, has been doing up to six hours a day of weight training and has put on ten pounds of muscle this offseason. Machida, who was formerly with Hiroshima, just turned 36 and contributed almost nothing last season, batting .188 with no homers in 34 games. 

Hanshin's salary negotiations are done for the year and the total team payroll, now try not to laugh, is 3.3 billion yen. That is 
right around $29 million. That's about $3 million and change over last season. 

Hiroshima Third round choice out of the collegiate/industrial league phase of the draft Eishin Soyogi, a 25 year old shortstop taken out of Nissan Motors, revealed that he wants to play in every game at the top level as a rookie, which would be a first for the Carp, and then celebrate his wedding to his wife, Sachiko, who is eight years older than her husband, once the schedule concludes. The two were leagally hitched in early December, but have put off the ceremony. The last rookie to play in every game for his team was Makoto Kosaka for Lotte in 1997. 

For those interested, Hiroshima will broadcast live footage of its spring camp at its homepage beginning on February. See the links section to go to their official site. 

Yakult When pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii was apprised of Rakuten manager Katsuya Nomura's remarks about his deciding not to sign with Rakuten (see item in the Pacific League report) and basically said he expected the onetime hall of fame catcher to criticize him. Ishii, though, chose not to respond to Nomura's tanturm "because I'm a 32 year old man." The Hochi Sports reporter called Ishii's answer "the adult thing to do," a tacit shot at Nomura's juvenile reaction to not getting what he wanted. Ishii then chuckled, "and Mr. Nomura is also young,"

Yokohama Reliever Hideki Kishimoto, a 6'2" righthander, got some advice from closer Mark Kroon on how to raise his velocity. Kishimoto has reportedly been clocked as high as 95mph in the past. He is entering his second year in the league and is still looking for his first win. 

Yomiuri As expected, former Lotte first baseman/DH Seung-yeop Lee has joined the Yomiuri Giants. In a press conference today, in Tokyo, it was announced that Lee had signed a one year deal which reportedly will pay him a 50 million yen signing bonus (around $425,000) and 160 million yen (about $1.4 million) in salary with another 50 million yen available in incentives. He will wear Akira Etoh's old number, 33. "I am honored to be allowed to join the Giants," Lee, who was accompanied by his model wife, told the throngs of reporters. "Because it happened so suddenly, I'm kind of nervous, but I will do my best to share the joy with everyone this season."

Lee revealed that when he began playing baseball in elementary school, a large portrait of Sadaharu Oh adormed a wall of where his team practiced. "I didn't know the meaning of it, but then someone told me that he was the world's home run king.So I was raised looking at that picture of Oh." 

He then went on to talk about his role with the team: "rather then being obsessed with home runs, I want to competently carry out whatever role they want me to. I've hit eighth before, so whatever spot in the batting order is fine with me."

Lee, who didn't hit lefties hardly at all last season and who was confined largely to DH duty because Marines league manager Bobby Valentine had better gloves available to him, must now figure out Central League pitchers that he has seen only during last season's interleague schedule, where he tore it up perhpas because those hurlers weren't familiar with him, must now prove he can surmount all that. 

The history of Koreans on the Giants isn't all that hot. A couple of Korean-Japanese, Isao Harimoto and Kazuhiro Kiyohara (pleas don't sue me Kiyohara-san!), did pretty well overall in a Yomiuri uniform, but aside from one strong season from  Sung-min Cho, who subsequently saw his career go up in smoke after blowing out his elbow, the other kyojin Korean imports have not done much of anything. Now Tokyo Dome is a more hospitable environment to hit in than Chiba Marine Stadium, Japan's answer to Candlestick Park, but that doesn't do you any good if they can consistently jam you on the inner half of the plate, as PL pitchers did to Lee. The Giants being what they are, if Lee doesn't come out of the gate at least semi well, he will be tasting the pine. 

Lee also still wants to play in MLB, so while he is mouthing the whole team player boiler plate, he needs to have an all star season to attract even decent MLB offers. He only had a minor league contract offer from Seattle for a reported $500,000 after leaving Samsung, which his agent termed "an insult." However, it appears that the M's have judged Lee's talents correctly when one ganders at his first two Japanese campaigns in their entirety. 

To help Lee deal with the media focus on the Giants, Yoshimoto Kogyo, a firm that manages players and entertainers, has been brought on board to run interference for him.  

A Hochi Sports piece today indicated that manager Tatsunori Hara will use a six man rotation this season and four of those spots are up for grabs. The only slots that are guarenteed are for ace Koji Uehara and new signing Jeremy Powell. After that, Masumi Kuwata, Gary Glover, Tetsya Utsumi, Kimiyasu Kudoh, Takahiko Nomaguchi, Hisanori Takahashi and Hiroshi Kisanuki, among others, will be among the names vying for the remaining spots. Intteresting to note that Hochi didn't mention much hyped number one high school pick Takanobu Tsujiuchi. It turns out that Tsujiuchi is likely to start the season in the minors at this point, according to Nikkan Sports.

Miscellaneous Contrary to what was reported yesterday in one of the Japanese sports tabloids, former Seattle reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa has offers from both the Angles and Dodgers as well as a couple of other teams, according to Nikkan Sports, and will decide on whether to hang it up or continue his career next week. That report also said that a return to NPB is pretty much out of the question, as the 37 year old righty and his family love the West Coast lifestyle. Boston is also expressing interest. 

Mariners rightfielder Ichiro Suzuki approves of Japan's WBC uniforms (as does this writer) today after a two hour workout at Orix's Kobe area indoor practice facility, during which he took 230 swings in thew batting cage. "I only got a glimpse of them, and they are nice, aren't they? praised the nine time nichibei (Japan-U.S.) batting champion. "I will look good in it, but maybe Mr. Oh will look the best in it.." They are definitely an improvement over the 2004 olympic baseball team's attire, which resembled pajamas. 

24 more players have been added to a list of possible Japanese team members in case one of their top 30 gets injured. According to Sankei Sports, that list includes pitchers Daisuke Miura (Yokohama), Fumiya Nishiguchi (Seibu), infielder Tomohiro Nioka (Yomiuri) and outfielder Saburo Omura (Lotte). 

Newly minted Met Yusaku Iriki will wear number 49, according to Hochi Sports. In addition, his contract was for three years, one year guarenteed plus two option years. 

41 new players have been signed by the Shikoku Island League, Japan's independent minor league. Among the newbies is a player from Zimbabwe, but I can't make out his last name, so I can't relay it here. Also on the same role call was Daisuke Matsuzaka's younger brother, Kyohei. Like big bro, Kyohie was a pitcher in high school, but he injured his shoulder at Hosei University and he went to work at a sporting goods manufacturer after graduation while keeping his chops up playing on a club team. But now he has take a break from his job and will be an infielder for Ehime. 

Nikkan Sports columnist Yasuhiro Nozaki today called the Bush administration "childish" in banning Cuba from participating in the WBC due to the ongoing American economic embargo of the totalitarian communist nation. Has anyone with a brain supported this asinine prohibition other than the most kooky Batista sympathisers in Florida? I have yet to see it. 

Finally, I see that the Cincinnati Reds are about to be sold. There are some really nice people in that organization and I wish them the best if they aren't kept on under the new regime. While it kinda makes me gag to hope for a revival of the team that created so much heartbreak for my Dodgers during the Big Red Machine years, it would be good for baseball. Cheers you lot!