Why were the “Abe Giants” so weak? Fatal Weaknesses of the Leading Contenders for the Championship

Two key words that made the difference with Hanshin

We were supposed to have the strength to win.

Last season, in Shinnosuke Abe’s first year as manager, the Giants won their first Central League title in four years, only to be eliminated from the Climax Series after a comeback by DeNA.

Burning for revenge, manager Abe made the largest-ever acquisition in the history of the Giants, acquiring Rider Martinez (28) from Chunichi for 5 billion yen over four years and Takuya Kai (32) from Softbank for an estimated 1.5 billion yen over five years, with the intention of strengthening the relief corps and fixing the regular catcher, which had been a long-held dream. The team also planned to strengthen its relief lineup and to secure a regular catcher, which had been a long-sought goal.

Although the departure of ace Tomoyuki Sugano (35), who had brought the team a 12-game winning streak, to the majors was a blow, the remarkable growth of young pitchers such as Shoyuki Togo (25), Iori Yamazaki (26), and Haruto Inoue (24) gave fans hope.

However, the team’s first season was not yet over. The Giants, led by manager Kyuji Fujikawa (45), are now about 15 games behind Hanshin, and in third place in the league (as of September 29, 2012).

Kazunori Shinozuka, who served as the Giants’ first-team hitting coach and defensive base running coach, said.

Even if he had played every game of the season, we would not have been able to beat the Hanshin.

Indeed, the Giants, who have been without their main gun for about three months, lead the league in team batting average at .249 and are second in home runs with 96, behind only DeNA. The Giants’ team batting average, at .249, is the best in the league, and their 96 home runs rank second in the league behind only DeNA.

However, when we look at the number of runs scored by the two teams, the Giants have 454 and the Hanshin have 490. What is the difference? The key words are “role awareness” and “thoroughness in all matters. Yoshimasa Takahashi, a Giants alumnus who also served as manager of the Chuo University baseball team, Abe’s alma mater, says, “This season, the Hanshin have won 13 games.

Shinnosuke is often criticized for bunting all the time, but Fujikawa is by far the more direct bunter. Still, the Giants have a strong image of bunting, probably because of the many failures.

I do not think that the players’ bunting skills are inferior, as they would have been taught by Masahiro Kawaso, 61, the god of bunting, who was the first team coach until last year, and the second team general fielding coach. If that is the case, the cause of failure is mental. It is probably because many players do not understand their own roles. Shinnosuke changes his starting lineup and batting order constantly. This means that his role is not clear and he cannot practice or mentally prepare before games. This is a major weakness of the Giants.”

Complicated usage of the batting order that hinders ″ordinary performance

According to FRIDAY, the Giants have about 100 different batting orders this season. The Hanshin team, on the other hand, has about 60 different batting orders.

The Hanshin batting order is fixed from No. 1 to No. 5, with Chikamoto or Takumu Nakano (29) getting on base and one of Morishita, Sato, or Yusuke Oyama (30) returning the runners. The other players can stick to team batting in cases where they are on base.

In the case of the Giants, however, a player who was No. 2 the day before may be sitting at No. 6 the next day. Moreover, Shinnosuke would immediately replace him or order him to the farm if he failed to produce results in the first game. Some players may be inspired, such as Yuta Izumiguchi (26), who was ordered to be replaced after failing to bunt, but most become demoralized and are unable to play to their satisfaction.

This complicated method of appointing players hinders the second key word, “thoroughness in all matters. Manager Abe’s goal is to create a rhythm from the defense and use small tricks such as bunting to score a run when the situation calls for it. In order for this to succeed, the entire team needs to share this awareness. ……

The team has not been able to do the obvious things like avoiding strikeouts when there are runners in scoring position,” he said. Tokyo Dome is a small stadium, so the Giants’ fielders tend to rely on one-hit hitting with a strong pulling mindset.

This season, many players struck out on every change or ball pitch that escaped to the outside when they were driven in at bats with a chance. That is why the number of runs did not increase in spite of the number of hits. This is far from Shinnosuke’s ideal baseball. When the starting lineup and batting order are spread out, you are only concerned about your own performance and not about the team’s batting,” said Shinozuka.

In fact, the Hanshin team gave up 479 walks, while the Giants gave up 440, about 40 fewer than the Hanshin team. The difference in the awareness of the need to get on base is obvious.

And the Giants have struggled the most to fix the key player at the fan position. At the beginning of the season, Kai, who had been the regular catcher for the Giants for a long time and whom manager Abe was eager to acquire, wore the starting pitcher’s mask.

He hit a lot in the early part of the season, but ended up hitting .260 with four runs batted in in 68 games. His boastful “Kai Cannon” was declining year by year, and his stolen-base prevention rate was also low. Yukinori Kishida (28), who replaced Kai in 87 games, has a base-stealing prevention rate of over 40% and a batting average of nearly 30%, and he can also hit long balls.

It is true that Kai may have a better lead, but we would not pay 1.5 billion yen for a second catcher who is over 30 years old. Pitch distribution and lead distribution improve only after playing in a game. It may be a result-oriented argument, but if we had kept Kishida as a starter and trained him in combination with promising youngsters such as Shinnosuke Yamase (24), we might have been able to develop him while winning, as the Hanshin team has done.

This is also the responsibility of the backroom crew. I heard that when Mr. Abe wanted to acquire Kai, the front office did not stop him, despite their reservations about his decline and low stolen base retention rate,” said a Central League team front office official.

Shinozuka, however, is sympathetic to Abe.

The Giants are a team that fans expect to be strong at all times. That is why inexperienced managers prioritize immediate victory over development. That is why, before Shinnosuke took over, I told him directly to be patient and build a foundation even if the first three years don’t produce results. ……

[Part 2] The ace Shoyuki Togo’s poor performance, the burden on the relievers… “Abe’s Giants” pitching staff also showed a “fatal difference from the Hanshin” team.

From the October 17, 2025 issue of FRIDAY