I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like Furuya as the ace. Maybe I'm being biased, but I think Sawamura is a much better pitcher. Sure, he may not have the "natural talent" they say Furuya has with baseball, but he shows fast improvement throughout.

Sawamura has a large variety of pitches, so much that I can't keep track of them. It gives Miyuki, or any catcher, lots of options that can counter the most difficult opponents. Also confuses the batters because they try to figure out which pitch Sawamura will throw. He has the control and now more speed, which he works his butt off for and the stamina needed to pitch for a long time without screwing up.

Sawamura also has a presence on the mound. Yes, he's a loudmouth and gives people a lot of secondhand embarrassment, but he motivates his teammates. He cares about the team to a great extent and his plays provide the fielders with a lot of motivation, along with a lot of work. He also makes great plays when the ball is hit, getting the batters out and strives to make the better play for the team. He's close with his teammates, even though he shows He worked hard for his position and no one can argue about that.

Sawamura even gets the team out of pinches, ones that Furuya created. He's been an amazing relief pitcher, creating chances out of the pinches. Kataoka puts him in so many times when Furuya screws up, just for him to clean up the mess. If you ask me, Sawamura should be complimented for the many times he pulled the team out of the pinch Furuya put them in.

On the other hand, Furuya doesn't have that variety. He has speed and power that makes him a difficult opponent, but that's it. The team members were impressed with his speed and power, but that's like a huge part of why he became a regular in the first place. That, and the fact that not many people were able to hit his pitches in that second-third-years vs first-years game. He has no stamina or control compared to Sawamura, and his control just gets worse as the game gets closer to the end.

He also has no way of motivating his teammates. He's just there on the mound, pitching and sometimes screwing up. He doesn't do anything to encourage those playing with him. He also has a huge ego, and for what? His pitches are scary, fast, and heavy so his opponents have a hard time, but that's it. His arrogance is why he ignores Miyuki's instructions and even refuses to pitch to anyone who can't catch his pitches (without allowing them time to adjust and get used to it). While it's funny when he falls asleep trying to ignore what he doesn't like, I don't like the attitude he shows to Miyuki and others just because he doesn't like it.

I might be biased because I don't like Furuya in general, but I think that Sawamura is the better pitcher and is better suited for the ace position. I would even put Kawakami before Furuya even though the former has a difficult time under pressure. I like Kawakami's character and I think it's much better than Furuya's. I just hope Sawamura can hold his ace position because if he doesn't, I would seriously be disappointed in the author. I feel like he would just be dragging the story out.

Furuya is a prodigy compared to Sawamura, Furuya has a monstrous fastball and a good control at the same time, it wasn't mentioned but furuya's control has gotten better. It was just the game against Hongou, the weight of being the ace, and the injury that changed him. They both lead the team and change the mood of the team in their own ways. Sawamura became better. but that improvement didn't made him become a better pitcher than Fururya, in fact his skills was just on par with Furuya. But Sawamura being the Ace doesn't mean he's better than Furuya, kataoka explained that changing their numbers will both make them improve even more. And as you can see in the end that Furuya played better in their game against Hachiya high, pitching better than his game against Hokkaido breaking his record with his fastest pitch from 154km to 155km. This gives us the conclusion that the ace number doesn't mean Sawamura is better than Furuya, it will just give them spur growth. But this still means that Sawamura can lead the team better than Furuya can.

Furuya is a prodigy compared to Sawamura, Furuya has a monstrous fastball and a good control at the same time,

I find the notion of comparing that Furuya is "a prodigy" to Sawamura and that the later is not is an entirely inaccurate comparison and an entirely inaccurate conclusion to make. Velocity is a gift, but just as much as velocity, command and the ability to move the ball are also gifts. If you want to assess what does it mean to make a pitcher be considered as a prodigy, we have to consider what that pitcher does that the other pitchers cannot. With Furuya, it's very clear, he's gifted with velocity, no one else in the series pitches as hard as he is. It is because velocity is so easy to assess and clear that many underestimate the rest of the metrics to measure a pitcher. With Sawamura, he has command on his pitches and although he doesn't have the best command in the series, his command is to a point that it can be considered excellent but that's not all because he has a natural ability to make his pitch moves. Ochiai's statement of Sawamura cannot learn breaking pitches "because if he did have the aptitude for the pitches, he would have already produced it" is fundamentally and factually wrong. If a pitcher can so easily learn a new pitch, why did Ochiai then had to teach Furuya the grip for the Slider instead of letting him "just produce it"? Pitchers learn pitches from either mimicking what other pitchers do or in some rare cases stumble upon a pitch by accident and just learned it like the case of Mariano Rivera's Cutter and that applied to Sawamura who learned the Cutter by accident after naturally produced it against Sensen. He then with his ability to injects a lot of spins on the pitch explored how he could make it better and with it produced a better version of the pitch, the Revised Cutter. Sawamura also has a very flexible body which as sport science have reported over year greatly reduce the risk of injury for an athlete gifted with this, Furuya on the other hand, we've seen how injury prone he is and staying healthy is part of being a successful pitcher. These things are underestimated because it's not as flashy or may seems not as impressive as a 155 kph on the radar gun but these are special talents that only a few have, evidently, Furuya can't do this. Therefore, it is fair to say Sawamura is a very gifted pitcher and is a prodigy on his own.

Regarding Furuya's control aspect, it is a stretch to say "Furuya has good control". His control has much improved since his first year but for it to be considered as "good" he has to be able to consistently hit spots with velocity like what Hongou, Amahisa and Mei do. Now I am not arguing Furuya is any less of a pitcher because of this as he can still be effective even without good control on his pitches but for him to be considered to have "good control" is not something we can conclude without Terajima's updated pitching stats. On the other hand, we've seen Sawamura being able to hit the same spot on the mitt over and over even as he increase the distance, we've seen time again and again Miyuki said he's hitting the exact spots in the zone where Miyuki wanted it in Act 2 but that clarity during an official game is often missing for Furuya. He has been able to hit good spots a few times in a game from what we can see but not consistently but once again, he doesn't need it because his fastball is just already that good.

Regarding whether which pitcher was better when the Ace number was made, there is really no argument against Sawamura's case. I disagree with the statement "improvement didn't made him become a better pitcher than Fururya, in fact his skills was just on par with Furuya" because there is no fact to this statement, this is an opinion and I'll get to the example you presented as your evidence later. The term better could very well be subjective depending on how one person perceives it and therefore varies from a person to another but when we want to analyze athletes, we have to look at numbers because it's the hard conclusive truth. A compiled Run Average of these pitchers give Sawamura a 0.89 RA and Furuya at 2.31 RA for the entirety of Act 2, since the Senbatsu Tournament, up until the SF against Ichidai. When the decision to elect the Ace Number took place, Sawamura's RA was hovering below 0.80 and Furuya at 2.4. Furuya's number was great but Sawamura's number were ridiculous, video game number. A pitcher's success should always be attributed to how much he can prevent the run and therefore ERA or RA is a fair assessment of the performance of a pitcher and because of that, at the moment when the decision to elect the Ace was made, Sawamura was frankly better statistically, that, is the accurate truth. Yes Sawamura is arguably going to be a better leader for the team as the Ace and on top of that he has the results to back it up that he deserves it. Even Ochiai knew this, the only reason he advised Kataoka against the decision was just because he was afraid changing the status quo would harm both pitcher's mentality. It did affect Sawamura's performance for 1 game, 1 game and that was it, he then proceeded to 1 hit Norikane in a shutout called game. In addition, comparing "skills" is vague. Of course Furuya has better velocity but he doesn't have as good command as Sawamura and his breaking pitch offerings are also not as diverse or as devastating. Comparing "skills" can't be conclusive to which one is better than another so again, we have to rely on the pitching stats instead.

Regarding why using the game vs. Hachi Ouji as an indication to how Furuya is already pitching "better than the vs. Komadai game" is again a bad comparison is because once again velocity isn't everything. If you're just looking at a game and judge whether a pitcher does better or not purely based on velocity, it's going to show an incomplete picture. Chapman can pitches 165 kph once on a game and give up 2 runs and he can pitch 158 kph on average on another and gives up none and the later game is definitively the better performance. Context matters and Hachiya Ouji is no Komadai, let's be very clear that we should not assume a Tokyo team which has never gotten out of the Block to qualify for Koshien to be at the same level offensively as a team that just swept the National Stage 3 times. Furuya despite giving up 2 runs, kept Komadai at bay for 9 innings, he went 1 hit and 0 run against Hachiya is no indication he was pitching better than he did vs. Komadai. He gave up 1 run to Sousei in his next outing so that's an indication that the opponents are getting tougher so once again, pitching well against these opponents are not reliable indicators to prove he's better than what he was vs. Komadai because once again, Komadai is the National Champion. Hence, this example does not prove he's better than he was or he's pitching better than Sawamura who is currently the Ace of the team given the quality of the opponents are different. Did Furuya pitch better than Sawamura's Yura game performance? Yes. Did just 2 good games in Summer immediately make him better than Sawamura for the majority of Act 2? No.

What do you mean? Did you even finished reading my comment? Or were you triggered on my first sentence? You speak based on stats and most of the games in Act 2 is a practice games, does it affect their stats as a player when the tournament hasn't even started? Miyuki already said it, "Furuya is in Rare form today" during their game against Hachiya Ouji, not because he threw a 155km fastball but because he's able to overcome his challenges and grew more as a player during that game. He's able to shutdown Hachiya Ouji's batter with a good pace, good control and not just his Fast Fastball or velocity. Of course Furuya isn't better than Sawamura in the entirety of Act 2 because he was injured and felt the weight of being an ace more than the fall tournament. And that experience hasn't been experienced by Sawamura yet. But I'm saying that Furuya is a prodigy not because it's my opinion but because it was always mentioned and described by Ochiai, Miyuki, and Chris, you want me to show you stats to consider him a prodigy? And I'm saying Sawamura isn't a prodigy because he really wasn't until he grew and become a reliable pitcher. What does a prodigy mean to you? A great player? A player who have a good stats? "A person, especially a young one, endowed with exceptional qualities or abilities". that's a prodigy, do you think if it wasn't because of Chris, Miyuki, Kataoka and all of his teammates and friends, he would be in the level same as he is now? During his first year he wasn't even that great of a player, yes he have some distinct qualities that only some pitchers have, but does it make him a prodigy? Sawamura deserved the ace number compared to Furuya because he is better than Furuya in some ways. But he said it himself, having the ace number doesn't mean his better than Furuya, Furuya is irreplaceable in their team and he can't change that, but the fact that he wasn't chosen as the ace means Sawamura deserved it more than him. The difference between these two is that Sawamura showed us how hard work and perseverance can bring us to a place we have never been before.

I laid out my points pretty clearly. I don't feel triggered by your comments because it was your opinions and I simply presented argument why I disagree to it and with the presented counterarguments, I will try to be as accurate as I can cos it is my job. I will provide stats and references to back it up and stays away from assumptions as much as I could. That's all there to it.

Yes, most of the games in Act 2 were practice games but on the games that they did pitch in official Tournament, Sawamura still performed consistently better than Furuya stat wise including both the Senbatsu and Spring Tourney and that by when the decision to choose the Ace was made, it was clear Sawamura was better (again) stat wise. Regarding the game with Hachiya Ouji, I would agree that Furuya was better than he was previously for the majority of Act 2 in terms of his mentality but was he truly better than he was in the Komadai game? We don't know. I said context matters and in this context Hachiya Ouji was no Komadai, to be able to shutout Komadai for 8 innings since the 1st inning is a big feat and Miyuki said in that day Furuya had everything going, command, breaking pitches, velocity and even his mental toughness was there. How can we know from a vague comment that "he was in a rare state" that he performed better than the performance of Komadai or not? My view would be no considering the caliber of opponents but we don't know and I don't want to assume definitely that he was.

No, Furuya wasn't better than Sawamura in Act 2 because he was injured or mentally unstable, it was because he could not maintain his form consistently. Furuya was injured for a better part of 2 weeks and still for the majority of Act 2, Furuya experienced ups and downs before the Summer Tournament began, he's still exceptional when he's on but when he wasn't on, there were still much to be desired. Injuries and mental pressure are part of being an athlete, as much as some who will experience growth, some will experience setbacks as well, as part of their development as a player. I am not in anyway saying Furuya is a lesser pitcher because of this but the way he has been developing in Act 2, he's experienced bigger hurdles than he's had in his 1st year and he wasn't able to remain as consistent as Sawamura so the later became the better pitcher. My point stands on which pitcher being better because there is no argument provided that can support the former point that you made about "Sawamura being the Ace doesn't mean he's better than Furuya". The topic of discussion here is Eijun or Furuya - who should be the Ace and different from you who thinks Sawamura became the Ace because he can lead the team better, and not that because he was flat out better than Furuya in terms of pitching, my belief is that Sawamura should be the Ace and he became the Ace because he was flat out the better pitcher for the majority of Act 2. I find it surprising that many fans still find it hard to believe that Sawamura has became a better pitcher than Furuya already and the stat lines support that. When a pitcher is better than the other, he's just better and I won't disregard that fact. Furuya was better than Sawamura in their first Summer Tournament and Furuya fastball made him so far ahead of the competition and could be a contributor early for the team. In Fall Tourney, when Furuya was the Ace of the team, Sawamura was actually the better pitcher and he pitched more innings (24.7 IP to Furuya's 21.3 IP) and gave up less runs than Furuya (RA=1.82 to Furuya's 4.64). In Senbatsu Furuya was the better pitcher but in Spring, Sawamura was much better than Furuya (RA=0.75 to Furuya's 2.82 for the combination of Senbatsu and Spring Tourney) and then Sawamura maintained this level of performance for the majority of Act 2 which earned him the Ace title. Many argue "if Furuya isn't injured he would be consistently better" but that's a moot point because staying healthy is again part of being an athlete so we should not cross out injury and performance flux due to pressure as a non-factor to determine which pitcher is better than another because these are very much part of being a pitcher, similarly, there is no excuse for Sawamura to be not good when started out, he lacks experience and knowledge and just wasn't all that good, it is what it is. If Furuya wants to be straight up better, he has to stay healthy to maintain his performance and if Sawamura wants to be better than Furuya, he has to consistently pitch better than Furuya does and he objectively did, for the most part of Act 2. I would personally defend Furuya if people argues he's a horrible pitcher because that's factually wrong and similarly, it's also factually wrong to claim when Sawamura got the Ace number he wasn't a better pitcher. Perhaps you meant the purpose of being the Ace and not actually the performance aspect of these pitchers or maybe not and that's fine, everyone is entitled to an opinion and I just responded to points I disagree with.

Perhaps you misunderstood my point, my point wasn't to say Furuya is not a prodigy and I stated this point very clearly, the point I disagreed with is to use Furuya as an example as a prodigy to determine that Sawamura is not. With your latest comment you presenting how Sawamura was not and is one now and I'm somewhat satisfied with that answer. The better description would be that Sawamura isn't an apparent prodigy because he was barely trained so his talents are mostly hidden and unexplored and frankly Sawamura's set of talents are often overlooked or underestimated so the misconception is that Sawamura is purely a hard-worker that sort of, for a lack of a better word, overachieved while in reality is Sawamura is extremely talented as a pitcher who has to work extra hard to make up the time that he wasted compare to other pitchers including Furuya, who have been trained at some level and more extensively than he did.

Sawamura has been very humble since the turning point of his career that was the yips, the fact that he thinks he's not better than Furuya is irrelevant to the reality that he pitches better than Furuya for the majority of Act 2. Furuya can overwhelm batters with just his fastball, Sawamura has to utilize different pitch combinations and he respects Furuya for that, whether which method is better, it's inconclusive base on just the the speech. Characters have been wrong with their statements many times, such as Ochiai being repeated wrong about his assessments of the players of Seidou and how Miyuki literally said they shouldn't be worried about Furuya cos he can figure it out and then the guy went and injured his shoulder in that same evening, so when I compare and analyze performance, I prefer to use stats to back up my points beside just relying on pure characters' dialogues. Regardless of what Sawamura says, Furuya is a critical member of the team is because he's still one of Seidou's best pitchers, their 2nd best starting pitcher and is one of the best pitchers in Tokyo Prefecture. Sawamura being the Ace doesn't mean he would push Furuya into obsolescence, far from it, and it's funny to me how often it is when a person presents an argument for either case it always results in a misunderstanding that an extreme has to happen that Seidou doesn't need Furuya because Sawamura is so good already or Seidou doesn't need Sawamura because Furuya has recovered. Seidou is blessed with 2 exceptional pitchers, it would be to their detriment if they don't utilize both of them to their maximum potential and it would be uninformative to argue they should use only 1 of them. That's what it means for both Sawamura and Furuya to be pillars of the team, that's what it means to have a Co-Ace.

Then we can both agree that Sawamura should be the ace. But we should not forget that Furuya is still a valuable pitcher in the team...

Yes, I can go on for an essay what makes Furuya a great pitcher and why Terajima decided to go with the co-ace situation in Seidou and that's what makes Daiya interesting because Terajima has been willing to be more adventurous compare to other baseball mangas that follow the established set of cliché narratives closely.

Terajima had a well laid out plan to make Sawamura the Ace in Act 2 and he executed it nicely, to make the change in the status quo, he even started to include sabermetrics and stats to his story which was something he never did in Act 1 just so he can lay out the evidences why that change was made, why Sawamura was the Ace and as a long time reader and a hard core baseball fan like myself, that's something that really impressed me.