Infielders Toshiaki Imae and Koichi Hori as well as pitchers Soichi Fujita and Shunsuke Watanabe will be on a poster for an ad campaign for Kirin Beer. It will be seen in drinking establishments in Chiba Prefecture as well as retail outlets. 

After holding at least part of their spring trainings in Kagoshima on the island of Kyushu for the last 36 years, team president Ryuzo Setoyama indicated Thursday that chapter may be ending. Instead, they are contemplating holding the second stage of spring camp in Omine's hometown of Ishigakijima, Okinawa Prefecture upon returning from Geelong, Australia next season.  Manager Bobby Valentine has expressed unhappiness with the facilities in Kagoshima. 

Nippon Ham Yu Darvish was clocked at 93mph in a loss to Yomiuri and was touched for two runs and three hits in three innings, one of those runs unearned, but he wasn't particularly put out about it. 

The main problem for the Fighters was that they didn't execute with runners on base and that stalled their few scoring chances. 

Tomoya Yagi succeeded Darvish and bogged the Giants down on two hits over four innings. 

Before the game began, the players and staff received their championship rings, each of which reportedly cost one million yen (about $8,000). 

Orix In a little bit of uncomfortable weirdness, outfielder Tuffy Rhodes was formally signed by the Buffaloes Thursday, but was given the uniform number of good friend and former teammate Norihiro Nakamura, who was released in the wake of a salary dispute this offseason. The former Cub will make $400,000 in salary plus incentives. Rhodes reportedly asked for the number as a tribute to Nakamura, with whom he played for eight years at Kintetsu. He will have to leave the country for a few days in order to pick up his work visa. 

By the way, he homered  up into the third deck in rightcenter off of a cement mixer curve from Yoshihisa Hirano during an intrasquad game at Osaka Dome Thursday. The shot was estimated at around 455 feet. That was the only run that Hirano permitted, as he went four innings on three hits. 

Rakuten A lot of players in Japan have koenkai (supporter's association) set up by fans who want to root specifically for them and now rookie Masahiro Tanaka has a 200 strong one back in Tomakomai, Hokkaido. It was initiated by a woman who ran the dormitory at Tanaka's former high school, Komadai Tomakomai, and the whole lot are planning an excursion down to Tokoroawa, Saitama Prefecture on March 25th to see him make his regular season pro debut against Seibu at Seibu Dome. Tanaka, while attending his graduation Wednesday, met with the woman to thank her.  

Hisashi Iwakuma will start Friday against Softbank. 

Seibu First baseman Alex Cabrera suffered an eye injury in a freak accident last week and may be out until after Opening Day. A ball went through the netting during batting practice and struck Cabrera in the eye, causing swelling and a bruise. Fortunately, it didn't do any structural damage to either the bones around the eye or the eye itself, but he won't be able to engage in regular practice until sometime around the middle of March and won't be in game shape until probably at least a month after. That will engender a move for Jeff Liefer from DH to first base. 

Rookie Takayuki Kishi threw 65 pitches in the bullpen Thursday and will make an appearance on Friday against Yokohama for one scheduled inning. 

Softbank Yasushi Kamiuchi, who is aiming to grab the fifth or sixth starter's job, was impressive Thursday, going five shutout innings against Chunichi and striking out eight while allowing just two hits in a 2-0 Hawks victory. Even with the superlative start, though, Kamiuchi's next scheduled outing will be three innings of relief. 

Minor league catcher Ryota Kato was hospitalized Thursday, but I can't make out what the problem was. However, it isn't serious and he is expected to be discharged in the next 2-3 days.