One has to wonder if some in the Dragons front office finds the headstrong Ochiai a little too nondeferential and that is what is really at the center of their delaying reupping him. 

Hanshin Lefthander Kei Igawa, coming off of a string of solid starts, will open on the hill for the Tigers Tuesday. 

Leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto will be a free agent after this season and he needs to come up with one of his trademark second half explosions to earn another big deal this offseason. 

Closer Tomoyuki Kubota will be re-examined this week and, if things go well, he could begin playing catch as he attempts to return from two broken fingers suffered in a freak baby carriage accident. 

Hiroshima The Carp's pitching coach had righthander Kan Otake using a softball during Monday's workout in hopes that it will help him get a better feel for his pitches and also make the baseball seem lighter by comparison. Otake will star Tuesday against Yomiuri. 

Yakult Catcher/manager Atsuya Furuta has a right shoulder problem and won't be able to catch in games right now as a result, so he will confine himself to pinch hitting duty. Yakult was 12-8 with Furuta behind the plate this season. 

Yomiuri Former outfielder Ro Mei-shi, who is making his living these days as the hitting instructor for the CPBL LaNew Bears, told Hochi Sports Monday that Softbank manager Sadaharu Oh's medical progress is being followed by the Taiwanese media. Oh is a hero in that country. "I hope he can get back in the dugout soon," Ro offered. 

In a bid to attract more female fans, the team held an event in Tokyo for women who are attending college billed as, Giants Venus Salon.. Outfielders Yoshinobu Takahashi and Kenji Yano answered questions as part of the 90 minute affair. They will be holding another one soon oriented toward female office workers, called OL (an abbreviation of "office lady") in Japan.  

Former Yomiuri shortstop Tatsuro Hirooka met for 30 minutes with manager Tatsnori Hara and blistered the team for not performing up to par, asserting that a part of being a pro is avoiding injury and that the folks who run the club need to reflect on their failures to date and come up with a winning formula. 

Hara spent part of Monday's practice session giving batting instruction to outfielders Tatsuya Ozeki and Yoshiyuki Kamei as well as to second baseman Makoto Kosaka. 

Jeremy Powell will start Tuesday against Hiroshima when the regular season gets back underway. Koji Uehara will follow him on Wednesday. 

Miscellaneous NPB will be auctioning off signed caps of the players who took part in this weekend's all star series to help Indonesian tsunami relief efforts. Bidding opens Tuesday and runs through August 1st. See the NPB official website for details. 

Mariners catcher Kenji Johjima clubbed a two run homer to left as part of a 2-3, four RBI night against Toronto in a 7-3 victory. Rightfielder Ichiro Suzuki was 0-4. 

As an aside, Chunichi Sports claims that Ichiro needs 23 more knocks to break Rogers Hornsby's record for most hits over a six year period, which is 1296. The Cardinals hall of fame second baseman did it from 1920-1925.  

Chicago White Sox infielder Tadahito Iguchi was 2-4 against Minnesota in a 7-4 loss. 

L.A. righthander Takashi Saito tossed two shutout innings at San Diego Monday ona hit and struckout three in a 7-6 defeat. 

Hideki Matsui is down in the Yankees minor league facility in Tampa and was asked Monday to provide some batting instruction to the youngsters. 

Colorado minor league infielder Kazuo Matsui is now off the DL and struckout in a pinch hit appearance against Sacramento Monday in a 14-0 loss.