Arai is injured

Arai will be out of action for at least two to three weeks and may miss the season's opening. He experienced severe pain in his right arm and on examination was diagnosed with a strained muscle in his forearm. He will have to rest it and not throw for 2-3 weeks but even after that will not be allowed to play catch up until 31st March.

Arai has recovered nicely and will be ready for opening day. He returned to the team against the Hawks and proved that his injury wasn't as bad as was initially thought. Iwata, Kubota and Yano will not be ready> Kanoh will be the catcher for the first series with Yano expected to return for the series against Hiroshima.

Mench is currently working out with O'Malley (who has flown in from the US specially) in an emergency attempt to get him out of his slump and able to hit Japanese pitching. He will start at No.6 and Right Field but if he doesn't perform he will be down to the second team very early. There is no doubt that Mench's lack of form is causing Mayumi serious worries.

another gaijin bust for the HTs?

They should go after Bonds now . . .

Mench's outlook is not good, but need to give him some time. The problem is Hanshin are probably expecting a lot of power right away.
I still wish the Tigers had gone after a proven foreign player like Alex and moved him to right.