New manager, new hope! Akihiro Yano and the Hanshin Tigers will be opening camp in just over a week. The club has announced which players are going to be starting at which campground. Keep in mind, there are call-ups and send-downs over the course of the month…
Anyhow, here is the basic schedule and squad divisions for this year’s spring training.
First Squad — February 1-27 in Ginoza, Okinawa
Scheduled days off: February 4 (Mon), 8 (Fri), 13 (Wed), 18 (Mon), 22 (Fri)
Exhibition games scheduled: February 14 (Thur) vs. Rakuten @ Ginoza; 17 (Sun) vs. Nippon Ham @ Ginoza; 19 (Tue) vs. Kia Tigers (Korea) @ Ginoza; 21 (Thur) vs. Hiroshima @ Ginoza; 23 (Sat) vs. Yakult @ Urasoe; 24 (Sun) vs. Chunichi @ Chatan. *All games start at 13:00!
Players invited:
Pitchers – Atsushi Nohmi, Yuki Nishi, Yuta Iwasada, Masaki Baba, Shintaro Fujinami, Kyuji Fujikawa, Taiki Ono, Hiroto Saiki, Masumi Hamachi, Koki Moriya, Yukiya Saitoh, Koyo Aoyagi, Pierce Johnson, Randy Messenger, Yuya Iida, Atsushi Mochizuki, Kentaro Kuwahara, Suguru Iwazaki, Hiroya Shimamoto, Onelki Garcia, Kazuo Itoh, Rafael Dolis = 22 men
Catchers – Seishiro Sakamoto, Kenya Nagasaka, Ryutaro Umeno, Taichi Okazaki = 4 men
Infielders – Hiroki Uemoto, Seiya Kinami, Takashi Toritani, Fumiya Hojoh, Yusuke Ohyama, Jefry Marte, Kento Itohara, Kai Ueda, Efren Navarro = 9 men
Outfielders – Koji Chikamoto, Yoshio Itoi, Kosuke Fukudome, Shun Takayama, Taiga Egoshi, Kairi Shimada, Masahiro Nakatani, Yutaro Itayama = 8 men
Second Squad — February 1-27 in Aki, Kochi
Scheduled days off: February 4 (Mon), 8 (Fri), 13 (Wed), 18 (Mon), 22 (Fri)
Exhibition games scheduled: February 11 (Mon) vs. TBA @ Aki; 16 (Sat) vs. Seibu @ Aki; 23 (Sat) vs. TBA @ Aki; 24 (Sun) vs. Hanhwa (Korea) @ Aki; 26 (Tue) vs. Kochi Fighting Dogs @ Aki *All games start at 12:30!
Players designated:
Pitchers – Yosuke Okamoto, Minoru Iwata, Yen-Ching Lu, Yuya Onaka, Haruto Takahashi, Tsuyoshi Ishizaki, Masaki Tanigawa, Shungo Fukunaga, Akifumi Takahashi, Takumi Akiyama, Riku Kawahara, Atsuki Yuasa, Joichiro Maki, Hiroaki Saiuchi, Yuya Yokoyama, Masaki Ishii = 16 men
Catchers – Shinji Komiyama, Yuya Katayama = 2 men
Infielders – Takahiro Kumagai, Noriharu Yamazaki, Yuto Morikoshi, Ryuhei Obata, Naomasa Yohkawa, Fumiya Araki = 6 men
Outfielders – Hayata Itoh, Shunsuke, Shintaro Yokota, Kosuke Fujitani = 4 men