A Japanese baseball commentator with major league experience is being cynical about the selection of Japanese major leaguer Lars Nuthba for the WBC national team, and is facing public criticism. Comments such as “If it’s a surprise show, it’s successful” and “Players who can defend like this are piled up like mountains in Japan” became a problem.

Hisanori Takahashi is a former Yomiuri Giants commentator who recorded 14 wins and 12 losses in the major leagues for the New York Mets, Los Angeles Angels, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs. Starting in 2020, he opened a YouTube channel called ‘Hisa-chan’ and now has over 10,000 subscribers. What he said in this YouTube broadcast became a hot topic in a bad sense. 스포츠토토

Takahashi showed a cynical reaction to the selection of Nutba, the first ‘Japanese major leaguer’ for the Japanese baseball team, saying, “It was a good choice if it was a surprise election.” He said, “Honestly, I think that (Nutba) is a necessary player. It is a performance that does not seem to be very different from Tsutsugo Yoshitomo.” said.

Regarding his defense, he gave a negative evaluation, saying, “It’s accurate, but I don’t have a good shoulder. Players with better defense than this are piled up like a mountain in Japan.” Here, he said, “I don’t have any expectations. I wonder why I was chosen.”

Nutba is still a rookie player who debuted in the major leagues in 2021 and played in 166 games over two years. His career batting average was also just 0.231. He instead showed slugging power with 14 home runs in 108 games last year. WAR (Win Contribution Against Substitutes, Baseball Reference) recorded 2.2.

The Japanese media is expecting Nutba to be the starting center fielder, and public opinion is applauding the Japanese national team’s new attempt. Here, ‘former big leaguer’ Takahashi took a different stand.

Then fans started criticizing Takahashi. “Nutba is a major league player, and now Tsutsugo is desperately trying to get back to the major leagues. This is a disrespect to Tsutsugo.” How many players are there?”, “What are you talking about? The first Japanese player is also a major league starter, so I’m just looking forward to it,” comments were posted.