Kind of a strange atmosphere in Japan's yakyu world this week with the World Baseball Classic attracting a lot of attention, as it should but, at the same time, the 12 Central and Pacific League teams have concluded their spring training camps and are into the exhibition season, preparing for Opening Day.

For the PL, that's less than three weeks from now, on Saturday, March 25. Central Leaguers will play their 2006 season lid-lifters on Friday, March 31.

Just before the teams broke camp, I had a chance to visit a couple of them in Miyazaki Prefecture and pick up some scuttlebutt from the Hiroshima Carp and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.

At the Carp workout site, manager Marty Brown ran his troops though training in the town of Nichinan, a pleasant, scenic 45-minute drive down the Pacific coast of south Kyushu from Miyazaki.

Brown has the experienced and extremely capable Joe Furukawa, formerly with the Yokohama BayStars, as his interpreter, and it appeared all was going well in preparation for the 2006 season.

All five of the Carp's foreign players are pitchers, and I asked the manager if the team doesn't have any plans to hire a gaikokujin position player.

He said, right now, he's still evaluating the Japanese talent and does not plan to sign a non-Japanese batter just for the sake of getting one.

"If a player became available who is absolutely the right guy for the Hiroshima Carp, we would be prepared to sign him," said Brown, indicating the matter is just not a priority at this time.

One of the hurlers, newbie right-hander Sean Douglass, said he doesn't mind playing for a team that finished in last place the previous season.

"We went from last to first with the team I played on last year," he said. That would be the Toledo Mud Hens, Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers.

The Hens were 65-78 in 2004 but improved to 89-55 in 2005, winning the International League pennant.

Naturally, Douglass will want to say his team went from worst to first two years in a row.

A maximum of three foreign pitchers can be registered at a time on the varsity, and lefty John Bale is back as the Carp's closer.

Another holdover is right-handed starter Mike Romano who left the team in August last year for a return to his home in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

Romano lost his house and everything in it but, "I didn't lose my life," he said, thankfully. He's moved 80 km north of the devastated Crescent City.

The other two Hiroshima foreigners are young Dominican righties Juan Feliciano and Victor Marte, a speed-baller who some say may challenge the record 161-kph heater thrown by Marc Kroon of Yokohama in 2005.

Among the Japanese players on the Red Helmets is a guy I'm really excited about -- first baseman-third baseman Kenta Kurihara who hit two homers, had four RBIs and gave Brown his first victory on Feb. 25, in a 7-4 exhibition win over SoftBank at Miyakonojo, an hour's drive inland from central Miyazaki.

The Hiroshima team catch phrase this year is "ALL IN," but three guys were out.

Sluggers Takahiro Arai and Shigenobu Shima and ace pitcher Hiroki Kuroda (before he was injured) were away with their WBC Team Japan mates.

Just retired Carp infielder Kenjiro Nomura, by the way, is working with the Kansas City Royals at their spring camp in Surprise, Ariz.

"Kenny" had expected to go to the States this year to work with Brown at Buffalo or wherever in North America Marty would have been managing, if he had not gotten the Hiroshima call.

The K.C. connection is Luis Medina, a teammate of Brown and Nomura with the Carp in 1993-1994. Medina is now a scout and special assistant to the Royals general manager Allard Baird.

At the SoftBank camp, a short drive across town, WBC team manager Sadaharu Oh was absent, as were three star players, designated hitter Nobuhiko Matsunaka, infielder Munenori Kawasaki and ace lefty hurler Toshiya Sugiuchi.

Slugger Julio Zuleta, runnerup in all three batting Triple Crown categories in the Pacific League in 2005, is now the most skillful Japanese language speaker among non-Asian foreign players since Tuffy Rhodes has left.

Zuleta, from Panama, would gladly return the title, though, if Tuffy comes back.

I mentioned my prediction that Rhodes would be cut from the Cincinnati Reds' camp and sign on for another season with a Japanese team such as the Orix Buffaloes or the Rakuten Eagles.

"How about the Hawks?" asked Zuleta.

Jolbert Cabrera started out playing second base for Fukuoka last season but ended up in left field and was the hottest hitter in the SoftBank lineup during last October's playoff loss to the Chiba Lotte Marines. He may play left again or could be at third base on Opening Day.

Fukuoka has two hot prospects at the hot corner, rookie Nobuhiro Matsuda (No. 5) and second-year player Tomoaki Egawa (No. 8).

Cabrera likes them both, and says about Matsuda, "He's like a young Kokubo." Jolbert was referring to ex-Hawks third sacker Hiroki Kokubo, now with the Yomiuri Giants.

But if Oh feels neither Matsuda nor Egawa are ready, "Mr. Utility" Cabrera might be at third.

In any event, Cabrera says the SoftBank club still has the nucleus to finish first in the PL, even without All-Star catcher Kenji Jojima, gone to the Seattle Mariners.

Welcome Back Dept: Meanwhile, at the WBC, former NPB players in from the States include Orestes Destrade, the 1989-1992 and 1995 Seibu Lions switch-hitting fence-buster who led the Pa League in homers with 42 in 1990, 39 in 1991 and 41 in 1992.

Talk about consistency!

Ore was here to broadcast for XM Satellite Radio.

Also returning to Tokyo is Phil Bradley, former center fielder for the Yomiuri Giants. He played the 1991 season at the Big Egg and now works for the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Contact Wayne Graczyk by e-mail at: [email protected]