A team pitching coach stated Monday that both Kubota and reliever Kyuji Fujikawa are expected to return to top level action on the 22nd. 

Team management has given the go ahead to making Hiroshma free agent righthander  Hiroki  Kuroda a very rich man once he goes on the market this November. Kuroda hasn't said much about leaving the Carp, but he once made a snarky comment about "probably ending up with Hanshin." 

Kei Igawa will start Tuesday while Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi will go Friday against Yakult. 

In addition, for the Chunichi series on August 29-31, the rotation wil reportedly be Igawa, Shimoyanagi and then Shinobu Fukuhara. Igawa needs one more win to become the first Tigers hurler since Shigeru Kobayashi in 1983 to rack up ten victories in five straight seasons. He would be the tenth Hanshin pitcher to do that in team history. 

Reliever Kentaro Hashimoto is back with the team. He was sidelined during spring training with shoulder trouble. In two appearances in the Western League, he has thrown a total of three scoreless innings. . 

The Tigers player personnel people are going to make Aikodai Meiden High School third baseman Naomichi Donoue their top draft pick in the high school phase of the November draft, provided of course, that he wants to go there. Donoue's dad is a former Dragon and his older brother is in the Chunichi system now. So there may be a lottery for his services. Hanshin needs to get its position players younger and with Makoto Imaoka's future uncertain they have decided to go with Donoue, who has cracked 55 homers during his schoolboy career. 

Should they lose the Donoue sweepstakes, they will set their sights in Chiben Wakayama slugger Ryohei Nakayama (see Koshien Tournament section). 

Hiroshima An official of the ballclub denied that manager Marty Brown had mentioned Chunichi as being the focus of a recent statement in which Brown accused an unnamed team of using underhanded methods to gather information on his pitchng staff and injured players and also of stealing signs. Hiroshima seems to want to pass this off as a misuderstanding due to the language barrier, but the fact is that Brown still hasn't retracted his charges. Of Dragons boss Hiromitsu Ochiai, who has steam coming out his ears right now over the insinuation that he is involved, Brown remarked, "what is he worried about? If he isn't doing anything untoward then he has nothing to worry about right? He needs to relax." 

Ochiai, according to Hochi Sports, "hasn't ruled out [a defamation action]." Ochiai is reportedly demanding a printed apology with the signatures of Brown as well as team owner Gen Matsuda on it, but he will not accept a personal apology from Brown. "He's put the entire sport of baseball in a bad light and made idiots of everyone in it," fumed Ochiai." Developing virulently....

Yakult Team president Yoshikazu Tagiku told the press Monday that the will approve the posting of third baseman Akinori Iwamura and pitcher Hirotoshi Ishii. Just what their value will be to an MLB team is questionable, though. Iwamura has said that he will not move to second base, where most MLB teams have him rightfully projected at, and Ishii's shoulder is dubious. However, Arizona scout Bill Singer liked what he saw of Iwamura and Ishii this weekend. Neither Ishii nor Iwamura would comment. 

San Diego Padres international scouting department head Randy Smith was also in Japan in May to see Iwamura and Ishii. The The team has been hot for Ishii for a couple of years, but Ishii was on the shelf when Smith made the trip. I can tell you that San Diego will be considering some Japanese talent this offseason, though money is going to be a big consideration. Smith liked Iwamura's aggressiveness. 

Yomiuri Manager Tatsunori Hara exhibited how behind the thinking in NPB is with its MLB counterpart. It appears that he hopes that speedy outfielder Takahiro Suzuki and young infielder Ryota Wakiya are in his prelimary plans for the one and two holes in 2007, but then went on to say that he "wants a .330, no, wait, .350 OBP" out of them next year. Somebody call Roger Cedeno's agent. There might be a job for the former Met. Nobody has told Hara that you want a MINIMUM .380 out of your leadoff guy. 

As an added note, they are going to have Suzuki switch hit again. Good luck with that. It didn't work the first time. 

Lefthander Tetsuya Utsumi says that he will still be throwing inside when he takes the mound against Yakult Tuesday even after being ejected with two outs in the fourth inning of his last start  because he beaned Swallows centerfielder Norichika Aoki. 

Reliever Kiyoshi Toyoda has been recalled to the big club. Hara earlier indicated that he will be having the closer's role filled jointly by lefty Hisanori Takahashi and Toyoda for now. Reliever Takahiko Nomaguchi has been sent down to make room. 

Pitcher Jeremy Powell brought his two year old son to practice Monday and played catch with him using a rubber ball. The sprog burbled that he wants to be a pitcher one day like dad. 

Righthander Kentaro Nishimura, who will start Wednesday against the Swallows, threw 53 pitches in the bullpen Monday as a tuneup. 

Gary Glover, just coming off of a no decision in his last start, believes that his control is becomingmore consistent and is optimistic about winning his next time out. 

Koshien Tournament In a faceoff between a baseball superpower and one that has a solid baseball tradition, Kumamoto Kogyo slipped by Tenri High Monday 5-3, the big blow coming in the top of the ninth with a two run double that dissolved a 3-3 deadlock. I knew that this woudl be a good game but I was too tired to stay up and watch it. Damned time difference. 

Here's to Shizuoka Shogyo High hanging close with a more powerfully blessed Fukuchiyama Seibi High, which ended 4-0 to Fukuchiyama's advantage. Shizuoka's ace, Kensuke Ono, is only 5'5," a little southpaw sidearmer who can nonetheless get it up there in the high 80's. He looked about 12.  I hope he continues to play after high school because he does have some potential despite his size. Some of you may recall Takehiro Hashimoto, a onetime lefty specialist with Seibu, was about Ono's height. Gambatte kudasai. By the way, I was rooting for Shizuoka because I have lived in the prefecture and really like the place and the people. 

Fukuchiyama ace Ken Komitani is considered a pro prospect, but he is a ways off. He tossed a six hit shutout and jacked a monster solo homer more than 400 feet to dead center, but the level of talent on the other team wasn't comparable and he may have gotten clocked against, say, an impressive Chiben Wakayama squad. But I wish the kid well. His mom Akiko died at age 35 of an illness when he was four. His dad was able to attend the game.  

Speaking of Chiben,. they fought off a tenacious Kanazawa High squad to move to the next round 5-2. One of their sluggers, Ryohei Hashimoto, is garnering pro attention even though his 33 homers is a middling figure for high school. He had a single and then a sac fly to the centerfield wall 394 feet away (the regular Koshien fences have been shortened a few feet to stuff more bleachers into the outfield seats and sell more tickets. By the way, this one was a sellout, about 50,000 or more). 

But the special guy for me in this one wasn't Hashimoto but sidearmer Ryosuke Hiroi. He has obviously been well coached because he is the only pitcher I have seen in the tournament to date who worked both his fastball and slider in an out at will. He really had an idea out there and even if his heater is average by pro standards, he knows what to do with it. The only thing he needs to be taught is how to work the vertical part of the strike zone. Everything was down, which is good, but you have to change the hitter's eye level on occasion and come up and in so he doesn't dive on you. His slider is awesome. He has tremendous depth on it. However, at this point, and this may have been due to the fact that I was watching this on the net, but it was rolling up there before the bottom would drop out of it, so he needs to obtain more bite. If he does that, his slide piece can be every bit as good as Akinori Otsuka's, though I doubt he will attain Otsuka's 92-94 velocity. Seriously, if the domestic pros bypass this kid I'm there with a contract if I'm an MLB scout. He's a good one. 

The problem I see with an otherwise extremely well coached Chiben nine is that they need to learn to backhand the ball. There is still this idea that if you don't get in front of the ball then you are being lazy in Japan, which has been some of Kazuo Matsui's problems. There are two plays, one an extra base hit, that wouldn't have gotten through if they had tried to go backhand on it. One down the third base line whould have been easy pickings with the right footwork and the backhand. 

Chiben head coach Hitoshi Takashima is now number one all time in summer Koshien victories with 28. The guy he passed up, Junji Nakamura, used to head up PL Gakuen High back during the Masumi Kuwata-Kazuhiro Kiyohara-Kazuyoshi Tatsunami period, but he quit to take university job and he is still at it. 

The one thing that really annoys me about the tournament, though, are all the pickoff throws to second and the sliding headlong into first base. The latter should be banned by the Japan Baseball Ferderation and the other only when you are indeed trying to pick him off and not just throw over to tell the runner you are paying attention. You can fake to second to do that.  The more times you throw over there the more likely it is one will sail into centerfield. Knock it off. 

On the plus side, I have been seeing some real impressive insideout swings and with some sock to boot. Some of these kids look like bodybuilders they are so muscled. It's like a bunch of Tomoaki Kanemotos clones running around out there. 

Those of you who haven't gotten on the net and seen some of the action at Koshien really need to rectify that. I am taking the day off from it today because my watching the games has slowed down my ability to get these reports up. Now I understand why the Japanese are so nuts about this tournament. 

Miscellaneous Mariners rightfielder Ichiro Suzuki went 2-4 with a walk Monday against Oakland in a 5-4 loss. He also got himself picked off of first in the ninth to help the A's wrap it up. He is batting .325. 

Catcher Kenji Johjima was 1-4. 

Chicago White Sox second baseman Tadahito Iguchi was 1-5 with an RBI Monday against Kansas City in a 12-2 rout. Iguchi is now hitting .290. 

The Mariners have lost 13 straight against Oakland. The last time any team did that badly against another club in their own division was in 1993, when Atlanta burned Colorado in 13 straight. The record also involves the Braves, when they lit the Padres up 15 consecutive contests in 1974. 

Colorado minor league shortstop Kazuo Matsui was 0-5 Monday against Salt Lake City and committed his fifth error. 

Cubs AAA pitcher Makoto Suzuki was taken deep in his one inning of work Monday against Memphis. He wasn't involved in the decision. 

Also down in the bushes, Yusaku Iriki came on during the seventh inning for Norfolk in AAA and gave up a run on three hits in a little over an inning.   

Japan wacked Puerto Rico 12-4 Monday in the University Baseball World Championship.They will play the U.S. in the semifinals next. 

Former Nankai and Hanshin pitcher Takenori Emoto has stepped down as manager of the Kyoto Firebirds (formerly the Samurai Bears) because he has gotten them to the point he wanted to and is now moving on to other projects. Succeeding him will be former Yokohama managers Hiroshi Gondo and Akihiko Oya, who will run the team on a rotaing basis.