Compensation List

This is a very good question. I'd done some searching and can't find a protected list anywhere.

However, I did find the ichi-gun member list for the Giants, and it says that Kudoh was dropped to ni-gun (or unregistered) on July 7, 2006, and wasn't brought back up through the last transaction day of October 8. But is the ichi-gun list the protected list? I don't know for sure.

I found a Yomiuri oen blog entry (in Japanese) with a list of the 28 protected Giants on it. Unfortunately, he doesn't site the original source, so this is not yet confirmed.

Pitchers:
Koji Uehara, Tetsuya Utsumi, Kentaro Nishimura, Hiroshi Kisanuki, Kiyoshi Toyoda, Hisanori Takahashi, Yuya Kubo, Masanori Hayashi, Satoshi Fukuda, Masafumi Togano, Takanobu Tsujiuchi, Daisuke Ochi, Takuya Fukata (13 players)

Fielders:
Ryota Wakiya, Takahiro Suzuki, Yoshinobu Takahashi, Tomohiro Nioka, Shinnosuke Abe, Takayuki Shimizu, Kenji Yano, Yoshiyuki Kamei, Yoshimoto Tani, Takayuki Saitoh, Makoto Kosaka, Takanori Hoshi, Ken Katoh, Masakuni Odajima, Hiroshi Umeda (15 players)

After further reading, it appears that the above blog entry is just one fan's idea of who he would protect if he were the Giants. As some pointed out, it wouldn't be necessary to protect Tani or Odajima, both of whom were picked up after the 2006 season. That should have been a tip off that the list was not official.

Also in the blog entry is commentary along the lines that Nishi (who was traded to the BayStars) may be acting as a consultant (informant) on which Giants could best help the team. It's an interesting thread, but it is not the officially protected 28.

There are many more blogs out there with speculation about who's on and off the list, but nothing official that I can find. With regard to this and other matters the outgoing Negoro-Commissioner is correct, Pro Yakyu needs a lot more transparency in its administration.