Ohtani. My goodness

Justacommeman

Two pitching wins already. A 0.45 WHIP. A perfect game today into the 7th. He had 12K’s in 7 innings today. Oh yeah and he is 7/18 at the plate with 3 homers already. He was one guy who needed a fast start but this is ridiculous........so far so good

m

BLUEJAYWAY

Thinking long term it will become increasingly difficult to occupy both positions effectively. He will have to choose one or the other eventually. But for now he's getting the job done and providing a spring boost/spark to his team and to baseball interest. Just hope his arm holds up.

erikthredd

We'll probably see more hype with him than with Judge a year ago. Ohtani might be a legit Mvp candidate this year if he keeps this up.

grote15

The second coming of Babe Ruth! Is No No Nanette back on Broadway?

Tabe

@erikthredd said:
We'll probably see more hype with him than with Judge a year ago. Ohtani might be a legit Mvp candidate this year if he keeps this up.

No "might" about it. He's hitting .389 and averaging a homer every 3rd Angels game. Has 2 pitching wins. If he performs at that level, he'll win the MVP.

stevek

@BLUEJAYWAY said:
Thinking long term it will become increasingly difficult to occupy both positions effectively. He will have to choose one or the other eventually. But for now he's getting the job done and providing a spring boost/spark to his team and to baseball interest. Just hope his arm holds up.

Being a designated hitter, and not having to physically endure standing and playing in the field for nine innings each game when he's not pitching, he might be able to do both...DH and pitch, especially at his young age.

Kinda funny seeing a pitcher in the American League in the batting lineup. LOL

Almost hard to believe, and only 23 years old.

erikthredd

@Tabe said:

@erikthredd said:
We'll probably see more hype with him than with Judge a year ago. Ohtani might be a legit Mvp candidate this year if he keeps this up.

No "might" about it. He's hitting .389 and averaging a homer every 3rd Angels game. Has 2 pitching wins. If he performs at that level, he'll win the MVP.

I'd love to see him keep it up but i doubt he stays at this undefeated pitching/50 homer pace all season. I'd say 15-18 wins & 20-22 homers are more realistic and very worthy of MVP talk. Even bigger i think he'll be great for baseball to promote like they did with Judge last season.

keets

no book, things will change.

the pitchers will find the "holes" in his swing and, although he has a nice slider, as long as his fastball is straight it doesn't matter how hard he throws, the batters will learn and catch up. they caught up with Jose Mesa when it counted and hitters have been catching up with Aroldis Chapman.

with all that said it is good for the game and exciting.

Justacommeman

That’s the hook. His fastball is not straight. While on the mound he had 25 swing and misses in his last outing. The most of any pitcher this season. I do agree the second time around will be harder.

mark

HighGradeLegends

its early...

cecropiamoth

@Justacommeman said:
That’s the hook. His fastball is not straight. While on the mound he had 25 swing and misses in his last outing. The most of any pitcher this season. I do agree the second time around will be harder.

mark

And the 'tilt' or drop on his splitter is borderline ridiculous.

Jeff

Justacommeman

@HighGradeLegends said:
its early...

Indeed

m

HighGradeLegends

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23105927/shohei-ohtani-memorabilia-market-starting-heat-up

pocketpiececommems

I'm not saying that he isn't going to be good but there are 162 games in a season. There is a long way to the finish line.

Unknown

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Justacommeman

I saw him pitch today. He was awesome. 11k’s in 6.1 innings. His stuff was electric especially his fastball. It was moving.

Oh and this.......not too shabby

348/.392/.652 slash line — with 5 home runs — in 74 plate appearances.

mark

keets

when I saw past highlights it was 98-100mph darts with no break and a wicked slider. the slider will be his out pitch down the road when it's hard to lay off something with two strikes. I have only seen a small sample, but that's what I saw.

now we are into June and he's out with an elbow injury despite being kept on a short leash by the Angels. hopefully it isn't something that ends his season or results in surgery. it does, however, put into perspective an old argument about a certain player from Japan who reached a hitting milestone and caused the comparison of MLB with the Japanese counterpart. if Ohtani is the premier pitcher from Japan where he pitched only about every seven days is that comparison still a valid one??

certainly Ohtani is an outstanding pitcher, but his regimen before coming to MLB was distinctly different. in a strange way, it is a similar comparison to pitchers of this era being held to seven innings vs. pitchers of 30-40 years ago who went the distance. it's the whole pitch count thing and conditioning. todays pitchers construct everything around 4-5 days rest and a 100 pitch count. apparently Ohtani and Japan construct everything around a 6-7 day rest. what is a typical Japanese pitch count before they are pulled for a reliever??

Justacommeman

He’s probably out until 2020 at this point. Too bad as he was baseballs best story. People forget that these young stars in Japan play 360 days of the year from age 14 on. The Otani’s who want to star tend to bring it 100% of the time.

Anyways I don’t share your assessment on his fastball. He was leading the majors at swings and misses on his fastball. It moves. I’ve seen him pitch a lot

m

LarkinCollector

@Justacommeman said:
Anyways I don’t share your assessment on his fastball. He was leading the majors at swings and misses on his fastball. It moves. I’ve seen him pitch a lot

m

Until one of the board statisticians weighs in, I can't take your word for it. I need a precise evaluation of how much it moves compared to the 50 top pitchers based on the "stat du jour+".

ETA: If there's no 'plus' version available yet, your eyes and the stat are stupid and irrelevant.

Justacommeman

@LarkinCollector said:

@Justacommeman said:
Anyways I don’t share your assessment on his fastball. He was leading the majors at swings and misses on his fastball. It moves. I’ve seen him pitch a lot

m

Until one of the board statisticians weighs in, I can't take your word for it. I need a precise evaluation of how much it moves compared to the 50 top pitchers based on the "stat du jour+".

ETA: If there's no 'plus' version available yet, your eyes and the stat are stupid and irrelevant.

Simple really. I’ve seen him pitch a lot and can say his fastball is not flat. It moves. I didn’t say it moves more then all pitchers. I didn’t say it was the best. I didn’t say any of that. All his pitches move. That you can see with your eyeballs. That combined with the game I noted in which hitters had 25 swings and misses a league high leads one to believe his pitches move. That’s all

m

Coinstartled

@Justacommeman said:
He’s probably out until 2020 at this point. Too bad as he was baseballs best story. People forget that these young stars in Japan play 360 days of the year from age 14 on. The Otani’s who want to star tend to bring it 100% of the time.

Anyways I don’t share your assessment on his fastball. He was leading the majors at swings and misses on his fastball. It moves. I’ve seen him pitch a lot

m

Tommy John it looks like. Strasburg had it early in his career.

""ESPN's Pedro Gomez reported early Monday morning the Los Angeles Angels expect Ohtani to undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the remainder of the 2018 season and the entire 2019 season.

"Everything I'm hearing is that the reality is, he probably will need Tommy John surgery. ... The earliest we might see him, should he have TJ surgery, would be the 2020 season."

keets

well, that certainly spoils a good story and puts the lid on another Angels season, a Team that always seems poised to go deep into the playoffs but never delivers. much like the Cincinatti Bengals of the NFL, I think it is time for the Angels to make the unpopular and maybe incorrect decision to change managers. Marvin Lewis always seems to be able to get to the playoffs but has yet to win a game in what, eight chances??? so it is with Mike Scocia(sp) who can get them to the dance but has two left feet.

back to Ohtani, I will take Mark's word for the 365 days of playing in Japan but I will also hold fast to my thought that there is something different about what goes on here and what goes on there. how does the guy come from a system that plays him all year but allows him to pitch once a week(just what I read and why the Angels pace him as they do)?? I have to believe that the trainers and medical staffs are better here, so what caused this injury because he really hasn't pitched that much??

my thinking is that the way MLB trains pitchers must be different than what he was accustomed to. sure, sometimes things just happen, but this seems to soon in his "Rookie Year" to be just coincidental.

fergie23

He had a grade 1 sprain when they signed him. They knew a more significant tear was a distinct possibility.

Robb

Justacommeman

Leads the majors with 31 homers.

He has also pitched 60 innings and has struck out 83 batters. Albeit he's been a wild with 35 walks. He has nasty stuff.

Amazing

blurryface

1st player to pitch & be a position player in the all star game.

time to go ohtani box digging.