If you’ve been following us on Facebook, you know we’re excited about the upcoming season. We’ve been counting down the days until next season using the players’ jerseys. Check it out if you get a chance. (And “like” the page, too, please!)
Anyhow, here is the basic schedule and squad divisions for this year’s spring training.
First Squad — February 1-28 in Ginoza, Okinawa
Scheduled days off: February 5 (Mon), 9 (Fri), 14 (Wed), 19 (Mon), 23 (Fri)
Exhibition games scheduled: February 11 (Sun) vs. DeNA @ Ginoza; 16 (Fri) vs. Rakuten @ Ginoza; 18 (Sun) vs. Nippon Ham @ Ginoza; 21 (Wed) vs. Kia Tigers (Korea) @ Ginoza; 24 (Sat) vs. Yakult @ Urasoe; 25 (Sun) vs. Chunichi @ Chatan. *All games start at 13:00!
Players invited:
Pitchers – Atsushi Nohmi, Yuta Iwasada, Masaki Baba, Shintaro Fujinami, Minoru Iwata, Kyuji Fujikawa, Taiki Ono, Tsuyoshi Ishizaki, Hiroto Saiki, Marcos Mateo, Akifumi Takahashi, Takumi Akiyama, Diego Moreno, Koyo Aoyagi, Randy Messenger, Ryoma Matsuda, Kentaro Kuwahara, Suguru Iwazaki, Hiroya Shimamoto, Rafael Dolis = 20 men
Catchers – Seishiro Sakamoto, Kenya Nagasaka, Ryutaro Umeno, Fumihito Haraguchi = 4 men
Infielders –Takashi Toritani, Fumiya Hojoh, Yusuke Ohyama, Takahiro Kumagai, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Wilin Rosario, Kento Itohara, Naomasa Yohkawa, Kai Ueda = 9 men
Outfielders – Yoshio Itoi, Kosuke Fukudome, Shun Takayama,Taiga Egoshi, Kairi Shimada, Masahiro Nakatani, Shunsuke = 7 men
Second Squad — February 1-28 in Aki, Kochi
Scheduled days off: February 5 (Mon), 9 (Fri), 14 (Wed), 19 (Mon), 23 (Fri)
Exhibition games scheduled: February 11 (Sun) vs. Shikoku Bank; 12 (Mon) vs. Hanhwa Eagles; 17 (Sat) vs. Seibu (@Haruno); 18 (Sun) vs. Shikoku IL Kochi; 22 (Thur) vs. Seibu; 25 (Sun) vs. JR Shikoku. * All games start at 12:30 at Aki, unless otherwise indicated.
Players Designated:
Pitchers – Daiki Enokida, Yuya Yokoyama, Yen-Ching Lu, Yuya Onaka, Haruto Takahashi, Masaki Tanigawa, Masumi Hamachi, Shungo Fukunaga, Daichi Takeyasu, Koki Moriya, Kosuke Fujitani, Shoya Yamamoto, Atsushi Mochizuki, Joichiro Maki, Kazuo Itoh, Masaki Ishii, Hiroaki Saiuchi = 17 men
Catchers – Shinya Azuhata, Taichi Okazaki, Shinji Komiyama = 3 men
Infielders – Hiroki Uemoto, Noriharu Yamazaki, Yuto Morikoshi, Ryota Imanari, Fumiya Araki, Naoto Nishida = 6 men
Outfielders – Hayata Itoh, Yutaro Itayama, Ryosuke Ogata, Shintaro Yokota = 4 men
If you have any questions about spring training in Japan, hit me up with a comment below, or send me an e-mail: thehanshintigers@gmail.com