Hanshin Esteban Yan had a rocky outing in Wednesday's intrasquad game. He restrained the opposition on a hit over three innings, but also balked three times in an inning, yes, you read that correctly, and walked three. He couldn't get hitters to bite on his splitter, either. Yan's balks were due to not making full stops in the set position, but a coach attributed Yan's problems here to not being used to dealing with Japanese batsmen yet. Yan himself stated that he wasn't happy with his performance and he has some work to do. He was clocked at 92mph. 

Centerfielder Norihiro Akahoshi said that Yan showed that he is very quick to first base with pickoff throws, which he thinks will make Yan hard to run on. 

Tomoyuki   Kubota was clocked at 94mph in that game while going two innings of one run ball and fanning five. The one run he gave up was on an RBI single by Lin Wei-tzu. According to Sankei Sports, Kubota has now thrown 3,000 pitches this spring between bullpens and intrasquad games. 

Second baseman Atsushi Fujimoto went 1-4, but he is now 3-3 when facing Kubota in intrasquads this spring. "It's just one of those things," Fujimoto told the press afterward. 

Ryan  Vogelsong toiled for three shutout innings and was impressed by catcher Akihiro Yano, who was seeing his first game action this spring. "He's a great catcher. Very smart." Vogelsong himself was clocked at 90mph and a Sankei Sports writer made another mention of the ex-Pirate's wife Nicole because he thinks she's hot. 

Japan has had E filing for tax returns since 2005, but few people have ever taken advantage of it. So this year, the government has enlisted NPB players to spread the word. Wednesday, reliever Kyuji Fujikawa, Yano and leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto were seen fiddling with the service while cameras clicked away during the photo op. Kanemoto then cracked, "I hope they use the tax money in way everybody will be happy with." 

Kanemoto had some pain in one of his eyes Thursday night, so he went to hospital to have it looked at and there was apparently something that had gotten into it, so they flushed the eye and that cleared up the problem. He then went to the next morning practice, where he cranked 14 homers in 89 swings in bp. 

Lefty specialist Makoto Yoshino went a hitless inning. 

Taiyo Fujita also got involved and was excellent, limiting his opponent to a hit and no runs in two innings. He was clocked at 91mph. 

Hiroshima The pitching thin Carp just received bad news Wednesday, as projected rotation member Sean Douglass' elbow is still not ready yet and he will open the regular schedule on the disabled list. He still won't be able to throw for at least another month and may not get back into action until the last days of May. He will be re-examined at the end of March. 

As their rotation stands now, Hiroki Kuroda will be the number one, followed by Kan Otake, who was terrible last season, and old folk Shinji Sasaoka. Jared Fernandez will also probably figure in their and the rest is up for grabs. At this time, there are no plans to try to bring in any more foreign help to conver for Douglass' absence. 

Hiroshima also announced that they have added taxi squad infielder Tsubasa Nakatani to the regular roster after he signed a new contract Wednesday. He will make around $40,000 in salary and his uniform number has gone from 128 to 56. Before being picked up by the Carp, he had played in the independent Shikoku Island League. 

Yakult The Swallows absorbed an 8-3 loss in a practice game against the KBO's SK Wyverns Wednesday, but centerfielder Norichika Aoki, who became the first man ever last year to have two 190 hit campaigns for a career, belted a three run homer to right off of what SK is billing as their high school rookie phenomin Kwang-hyun Kim on a 1-1 middle in fastball that was up and also singled and walked to lead what there was of his team's offense. 

Kim went four innings and surrendered three runs on two hits and blamed the runs scoring on lackluster control. 

Shortstop Heishu Ohara also had two hits and a walk. 

Yokohama The ballclub spent over $1 million tearing out a patch of 6,000 smaller infield seats in order to install 4,000 bigger and more comfortable ones, which are also now blue. However, the team's outfielders complain that they are having a tough time picking the ball up due to the new color, especially as it elevates from the blue to the orange seats of the upper section. However, a club official said that it won't make any difference once they get fans in those seats. Of course, one could then ask just how many fans a Yokohama nine who seems destined for another fifth or sixth place finish this season will fill those shiny new chairs.  

Yomiuri Injured Yomiuri ace Koji Uehara, who is rehabbing a pair of leg injuries, threw 70 pitches in the bullpen, 30 of them with the catcher standing and the other 40 with him in the crouch while paying attention to where he was planting his front leg as he threw. 

Like Uehara, lefthander Shigeki Noguchi is also down in the minor league camp and tossed 61 pitches Wednesday. 

Manager Tatsunori Hara will have infielder Ryota Wakiya and outfielders Yoshiyuki Kamei, Yoshitomo Tani and rookie Tetsuya Matsumoto fight it out for the leadoff spot in the badding order this spring. In addition, it appears that he will bat third baseman Michihiro Ogasawara in the three hole and Seung-yeop Lee in the cleanup spot while second baseman Luis Gonzalez is reportedly the leading candidate to hit fifth. 

The Giants have arrived in Sapporo in preparation for their exhibition game with Nippon Ham Thursday. Scheduled starter Tetsuya Utsumi threw 46 pitches in the bullpen to get ready for his assignment. 

Submariner Yushi Aida will relieve Utsumi Thursday and spun 42 pitches in the pen Wednesday to stay sharp. 

Second year reliever Satoshi Fukuda threw 50 pitches in the pen, but coaches remarked that Fukuda is having trouble getting his fastball in on righthand hitters. 

Rookie Takahisa Ueno will make his pro exhibition debut Thursday and had a 40 pitch bullpen session. Hiroki Sanada is also slated to appear, but he didn't throw Wednesday. 

The mayor of Naha, Okinawa Prefecture said Wednesday that he will meet with Yomiuri officials in March about the possibility of luring the club to his locality for spring training beginning in 2010. The Giants currently train in Miyazaki, Miyazaki Prefecture. 

Miscellaneous Hanshin senior adviser Senichi Hoshino, who is also the head coach of the Japanese olympic baseball team, said that he will name up to 70 players in June as possible candidates for the squad and then will hone it down to the final roster of 30 before the Asia qualifying tournament begins. By doing so, Hoshino hopes to light a fire under NPB's players this season. 

A more than two hour long DVD put out by Japan's Victor Entertainment about then Waseda Jitsugyo High ace Yuki Tanaka's heroics at last summer's Koshien Tournament has sold more than 5,000 copies. According to company officials, a hit sports title is any that gets into four figures, so Saito has eclipsed all expectations. Saito is now a freshman at Waseda University. For those interested, it is 3,675 yen (around $30) and you can probably order it from Amazon Japan, which does deliver to the U.S.

Also on DVD in Japan is  this  two disk set starring Sadaharu Oh, which is apparently comprised of a lot of his home run footage as an active player. It also goes into how he trained and his hitting philosophy as well. It is 5,775 yen (about $50), including tax. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Amazon Japan is carrying it, so it is only available in Japan, I guess. 

Cardinals outfielder So Taguchi went 0-2 Wednesday against Florida. 

Tampa Bay third baseman Akinori Iwamura batted seventh in his first intrasquad game with the Rays and grounded out in both of his ups. 

Reliever Shinji Mori did some longtossing and had a light 26 side session as he continues to recover from major shoulder sugery he had last season. 

Masumi Kuwata threw 45 pitches in batting practice Wednesday and did well, though he was taken deep for a 425 foot bomb by Brad Eldred. 

Daisuke Matsuzaka threw about 60 pitches in the bullpen Wednesday and then did some long tossing with reliever Hideki Okajima. According to Hochi Sports, contrary to at least one earlier report, Matsuzaka will indeed make an appearance against Bolston College on March 2nd. That game will be broadcast live on NESN as well as Japanese satellite cable. 

In addition, ESPN will broadcast a Boston exhibition game on the 21st agtainst Pittsburgh and they hope that it will feature Masumi Kuwata against Matsuzaka. The same outlet will also broadcast one with the Reds on the 26th. 

After facing BC, Matsuzaka will make an appearance on the 6th against Florida. 

However, Matsuzaka has been forbidden to take any batting practice for fear he might get injured. Matsuzaka himself said that he didn't plan on getting in the cage, just hitting off of a tee. Note to Bosox front office: Japanese fans like seeing Matsuzaka hit (he homered against Hanshin last season) and you would do well to use him as a spare pinch hitter in extra inning games. He does have an idea of what to do with the bat. He has never injured himself taking any form of hitting practice, so just let the kid be. 

Neither Kenji Johjima nor Ichiro Suzuki will play in Thursday's exhibition against San Diego. Neither man played in Wednesday's intrasquad match as well. 

Rockies second baseman Kazuo Matsui doubled in three at bats and drove in a run against the Chicago White Sox Wednesday. On that other side, Matsui's day was duplicated by Tadahito Iguchi. 

The Shikoku Island League's regular season will begin on March 31st and, similar to last season, they will have a first half and second half winner format with the two winners to meet in the championship series. Each club will play 90 games. 

Maybe because they are afraid that the steroids issue will have a negative impact on their ratings, especially in light of raids the feds conducted on internet pharmacies this week, but Wednesday, ESPN has been floating the meme of "do fans really care about steroids," which to me sounds like an attempt to pooh pooh what could be a sports scandal that is about to reach full bloom. However, the meme was quickly shot down by an online poll (not scientific to be sure, though) that saw more than 80% of the respondents react that they are indeed disturbed by the use of performance enhancing drugs by professional athletes. 

Here is why everybody should care about this: if pro athletes are allowed to use steroids as they see fit then all players will essentially be forced to take them despite the long term health consequences. Indeed, there will be pressure by coaches and managers to use them since their continued employment is predicated on their win-loss records. It could even go to the extent that scouts will refuse to recommend players to their ballclubs who don't want to juice. In other words, play Russian roulette with your health or go sell insurance. That is unfair and dangerous and THAT is why steroids should be banned from professional sports.