pacific3

Pacific League Report

4/8/2004

No Games Today

Team Reports

Daiei
Tsuyoshi Wada will start Friday against Nippon Ham. Last season, the lefthander was 5-0 against the Fighters. "To me, tomorrow will	be my Opening Day," he told reporters.

Seibu

The Lions are reportedly working out Brad Voyles to see if he can bolster their pitching staff. Seibu is also said to have inquired about a couple of other MLB moundsmen, but the actual names haven't been disclosed. This would require a juggling of the club's roster, since they would have to unload or demote Hsu Ming-chieh to make room. It is unlikely that Chang Chia-chiah would be the one sacrificed since he is not only younger and cheaper, but also has a bigger upside than Hsu. Then once Alex Cabrera comes back, they will have to decide who to keep with the big club, too, since they just re-signed Scott McClain. With the Lions scoring plenty of runs right now, McClain is unecessary and could be stashed in the minors once Cabrera

returns unless Chang or Jose Fernandez' performaces are subpar or
one of them goes out with an injury.

Ace Daisuke Matsuzaka blames "thinking too much" for his getting hammered in his first two starts this season. So he is going to go into the upcoming game with Kintetsu mainly aiming to work on his off speed stuff.

In addition, Matsuzaka is another one of the NPB players who are saying that they were "inspired" by Kazuo Matsui's first pitch homer debut Tuesday against Atlanta.

Kintetsu

Outfielder Hiroaki Onishi, who has been a very pleasant surprise this season for the Buffaloes, is looking forward to facing Matsuzaka again. When Onishi was at PL Gakuen High School and Matsuzaka was at Yokohama High, Onishi went 5-10 against the future
superstar in two spring and summer Koshien Tournament games. However, Onishi also confessed that when he went to a party last season for players who had been in high school at the same time as the Lions superstar, he felt intimidated by what the righthander had accomplished.

Lotte

Manager Bobby Valentine and Orix skipper Haruki Ihara have an incipient fued brewing. The last time the two teams met, which was in an exhibition game this spring, Ihara, who had stationed himself in the third base coach's box, shouted at Lotte's pitcher to "hurry up."
This brought a tart retort from Valentine and the two got into a brief jawing match, with Ihara calling the former Mets and Rangers boss a "big moron." When asked about this episode by reporters Thursday, Valentine replied, "Ihara who?" He then went on to say that he isn't going to get into it with the former Seibu headman and prefers to leave what happens on the field to the players.

Valentine also made some interesting comments to all world asshole Bryant Gumbel for the former KNBC newsreader's program, Real

Sports Sports, says the San Jose Mercury-News:

He said he doesn't expect his translator, Shun Nakasone, to protect him. "It's not his job. My mouth is big plenty big neough for both of my feet." He also called for MLB to add an Asian Division: "There's no reason [that shouldn't happen]. It's such a no brainer to spread baseball in a true, worldly fashion."

He then moved on to the quality of his charges in the Chiba Lotte Marines: "I think that every [starting member] of my team could play in the major leagues." I think a new definition of the word "optimist" will now be seen in the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Nippon Ham
Outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo is said to have invited 100 family members of Japan's Self-Defense Force ("jieitai") who have loved ones currently serving in Iraq to a game at his expense on the 29th.	Three volunteers attached to that force have been captured by militants and are being threatened with death unless Japan pull out of the country.

Orix

The Blue Wave front office is said to be making Tohoku High School
righthander Yu Darvish their number one priority for the November draft. "He throws hard and has a lot of future potential." Nippon Ham are also quite hot for Darvish, according to Sports Nippon. At least a couple of other Japanese clubs as well as some from MLB are at least interested in the Iranian-Japanese youngster.

Kintetsu
Outfielder Hiroaki Onishi, who has been a very pleasant surprise this season for the Buffaloes, is looking forward to facing Matsuzaka again. When Onishi was at PL Gakuen High School and Matsuzaka was at Yokohama High, Onishi went 5-10 against the future superstar in two spring and summer Koshien Tournament games.	However, Onishi also confessed that when he went to a party last season for players who had been in high school at the same time as the Lions superstar, he felt intimidated by what the righthander had accomplished.

Orix
The Blue Wave front office is said to be making Tohoku High School righthander Yu Darvish their number one priority for the November draft. "He throws hard and has a lot of future potential." Nippon Ham	are also quite hot for Darvish, according to Sports Nippon. At least a couple of other Japanese clubs as well as some from MLB are at least interested in the Iranian-Japanese youngster.