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The story
On the 5ch thread “Giants Acting Manager 183,” discussion continued around Oda, the Asia University pitcher the Giants are reportedly considering for their first-round draft pick. Oda has previously said, “I’m interested in Major League Baseball, but if I could be coached by someone with MLB experience, I wouldn’t rule out playing in NPB.” His comments sparked worry in the thread that he might end up refusing the Giants’ pick. The Giants have a history of passing on players like Daisuke Matsuzaka and Shohei Ohtani in the past, and the discussion expanded into wishful speculation that only a setup with manager Hideki Matsui, coach Hiroki Kuroda, and traveling coach Ichiro could win him over, as well as into the futures of Koji Uehara and Tomoyuki Sugano.
What people said
Giants Acting Manager 182
I think it happened once, in 1973? Kobayashi from Aichi Gakuin University
This is the team that ran away from Matsuzaka and Ohtani, remember?
They managed to land Uehara and Sugano, so there's no way they're passing on this…
Well, that kills any chance of Hara's 'three times' angle
Doesn't he look a little happy about it?
The seniors shown here endured all the hardship and became gods lol
The underclassmen are still slaves though
Asia University's current manager is a guy named Shomura (a Tokai University grad, former Hachinohe Gakuin University manager), so the old-school customs are probably fading now (lol)
No player has ever been drafted by our team and turned it down
There was one, a really long time ago (1973)
There's precedent for players privately specifying their preferred team or region before the draft
Some chunk of those 'going corporate league/college' announcements are just smoke screens to dodge other teams, based on behind-the-scenes negotiations
Tsuburaya, plus Tahara and Kinoshita who both ended up in the developmental league
Way back there was also Anzai, who was a teammate of Takeshi Aikawa
Turns out there are more than you'd think lol
I vaguely remember Tsuburaya lol
If it has to be in the teens, 12 is open too
Then it'd have to be manager Matsui or Okajima
Ah, the year of the Yuguchi incident
Probably only our team has had a No. 1 pick flame out within a single year
Everybody's already this hyped, so I don't even care if he turns out to be a bust lol
Better to build a track record in Japan first
— that's the scare tactic (to talk him out of MLB)
The Fighters fed Ohtani that exact line and it worked out, but will it work this time?
Three posting cases:
Yamaguchi: Blue Jays
Sugano: fell through
Okamoto: Blue Jays
2 out of 3 went to the Blue Jays though
Coach Kuroda
Traveling coach Ichiro
It'd take a lineup like that to even get his attention — Uehara's being underrated here
Yeah, a coach's or manager's playing record really does matter
Hirai signed because of coach Hisashi Yamada
Matsuzaka signed because of manager Toshi (Higashio)
He could just take No. 19 again
When Uehara came back he got stuck with a number like a switchboard operator's anyway
Hara's not even involved anymore, so that promise might get broken lol
Sounds like Rakuten HQ
It's shorter now
Background and Key Points
It’s well known that the Giants have historically avoided drafting players seen as likely to refuse the pick, but actual cases of a player rejecting the Giants are extremely rare — the thread cites pitcher Kobayashi of Aichi Gakuin University in 1973 as apparently the only such case for the team. Asia University’s baseball team is known for its strict hierarchy, but the current manager is Shomura, formerly of Hachinohe Gakuin University, so how much of the old-school culture remains is unclear. The idea of a coaching staff built around manager Hideki Matsui, coach Hiroki Kuroda, and traveling coach Ichiro is purely wishful thinking from fans in the thread, not an official team announcement. Likewise, the talk about the futures of Koji Uehara and Tomoyuki Sugano is speculation, not anything either player has stated themselves.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch Hello! Project board thread “Giants Acting Manager 183.”
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