With talk swirling that relievers Tomoyuki Kubota and Kyuji Fujikawa might be starters next season, Okada told the press Sunday that he is going to be trying a lot of different things during the fall camp to try to improve the team, especially on the rotation front. To that effect, so far disappointing prospect Kazuya Tsutsui, who went to a sidearm delivery this spring and won a Western League saves title, will return to an overhand approach in hopes he is now finally ready to contribute as a starter. Tsutsui has had major control issues in his first years as a pro abd could very well have faced being released had he not had the good minor league campaign. 

Kubota will not participate in the fall camp in order to rest his arm, which saw action in an NPB record 90 appearances in 2007. 

Inconsistent righthander Naohisa Sugiyama said that he learned something from watching Yu Darvish pitch in game one of the Japan Series: relaxing while throwing. Sugiyama has had problems with overthrowing during his career in perhaps attempting to overcompensate for his low horsepower stuff. 

They may also have outfielders Masato Akamatsu and Osamu Hamanaka try switch hitting, though it is kind of late in the latter's career to take that on. 

Catcher of the future Ryohei Hashimoto has shown that he can hit down on the farm, but he still has some kinks in his throwing and catching skills to iron out. Catching coach Katsuhiko Kido, in fact, yelled at Hashimoto Sunday for not showing enough concentration while playing catch. Yes, you read that right. You gotta love the Japanese. 

Hiroshima Speaking of Kuroda, he was at Saturday's World Series game in Denver and said he had a good time. However, nobody in the American baseball press picked up on that even though Kuroda is one of the top two Japanese free agents coming out this year. Nice job, guys. 

Yomiuri It appears that Koji Uehara will be the team's closer again next season even though he wants to go back into the starting rotation. It has been rumored that they would go after either Yokohama closer Mark Kroon or Lotte's Masahide Kobayashi, both of whom are free agents, but there was a story in Yomiuri mouthpiece Hochi Sports talking about how Uehara would grudgingly be willing to close again in 2008. Should that actually come to pass, it will be interesting to see what that does to his value will be on the MLB pitching market and how whatever big league squad he ends up with in 2009 will do with him. 

Pinch hitting specialist Noriyoshi Omichi turned 38 Sunday. He is eligible for free agency, but realizing that demand for his services is likely thin to non-existent, he has said he will remain with the Giants. He batted .306 in pinch hit duty this season, mostly against lefties. 

Miscellaneous Kagawa, the 2007 supremos of the Shikoku Island League, shutout the Ishikawa club of the Hokushinetsu Baseball Challenge League Sunday 4-0 in game four of the independent league championship series to take the five game set 3-1. 

The President Lions edged out the LaNew Bears in game seven of the CPBL (Taiwan) championship series 4-2 Sunday to advance to the Asia Series. as the CPBL continues to struggle for survivial against the hits it keeps taking over the influence of gambling on the sport there. 

When Boston pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka singled through the left side Saturday for two RBIs, he became the first Red Sox hurler to drive in a pair in a World Series contest since Babe Ruth in game four of the 1918 series against the Cubs at Fenway Park, according to Hochi Sports. Ruth, though, did it with a two run triple to rightcenter in the fourth off of Lefty Tyler and he also scooped up credit for the win with eight innings of two run ball in a 3-2 final. Thanks to Sankei Sports for the game description. 

Congratulations to the Red Sox, by the way, for sweeping the Rockies. Hideki Okajima surrendered a two run homer to tighten Sunday's game up to 4-3, but Jon Papelbon came on and sealed the deal after nearly being taken deep himself. Boy, this has been the postseason of the sweep, hasn't it? And it was capped off by cancer victim Jon Lester getting the win. 

It's also sad because that means no more baseball until next spring except for the overkill that the media will apply to where A-Rod is going to end up next season. And just let me say that $30 million a year for anyone is absurd. But I feel the same way about $10 million. I certainly don't want him on my Mariners or Dodgers or Angels. I wish MLB owners would come to their senses and stop paying such egregious amounts of cash to the players, but hey, if they offered me that kind of money I wouldn't turn it down. But c'mon, let's start playing in the reality based world, okay?

Of course, corporate America is even worse. The clown that ran Merrill Lynch into a huge loss this year is goiing to leave with a  golden parachute  in excess of $150 million. What a fucking joke. These are the same assholes who fume about the minimum wage being increased. When are stockholders going to start paying attention to the costs of out of control CEO compensation? 

Anyways, getting back to baseball, San Diego is said by the Denver Post to be interested in former White Sox and Philadelphia infielder Tadahito Iguchi as well as Colorado second baseman Kazuo Matsui.