Giants Fall Silent Against DeNA Starter Takeda, Managerial Moves Also Questioned

Background and Key Points of This Discussion

The Giants’ current “acting manager” setup, where a head coach runs the team, has repeatedly split opinion in the thread over each game’s in-game calls. This time the mid-game move swapping in Norimoto for starter Urata drew criticism, but it didn’t actually lead to a blowout — if anything, the bigger issue was the lineup failing to cash in its scoring chances. The Rookie of the Year race has the Giants’ Urata and DeNA’s Watarai as the named contenders, but factors beyond the stat line — games played, media coverage — muddy the evaluation, making it an easy topic to argue over. There was also a mention of Izumiguchi’s runners-in-scoring-position average (TZR), but such unofficial stats swing a lot depending on how they’re calculated, so cross-team comparisons shouldn’t be taken at face value.