First team squad

For the first team squad these are the candidates
Catchers
Johjima
Yano
Shimizu
Kanoh

Infielders
Toritani
Sekimoto
Uemoto
Hirano
Arai
Yamato
Brazell

Outfielders
Shibata
Kanemoto
Asai
Murton
Hiyama
Lin
Sakurai

Pitching
Watanabe
Kanemura
Nohmi
Fujiwara
Andoh
Sugiyama
Futagami
Shoh
Tsutsui
Iwata
Fujikawa
Egusa
Fukuhara
Kubota
Kubo
Uezono
Shimoyanagi
Nishimura
Messenger
Fossom

There are some differences between this list and the list of pitchers being considered for the rotation but none of this is fixed. Expect the lists to change as players do well in Spring training and the open-sen games. One thing that is disappointing is the inclusion of Yano as a catcher - one would have thought that the coaching role would have been more appropriate for him now. It is also to be hoped that Kojima gets included (preferably in place of Sugiyama).

A happy new year Christopher. Good luck to your blog this year. It is the year of Tiger for we Japanese so we are hoping it will be a lucky year for Hanshin.

Good luck again. It would be so wonderful if you could have interviews with Hanshin foreign players. Would this be possible?

A happy new year to you too. I cannot promise anything about interviews as I am not resident in Osaka but you never know.