let's get excited about...shohei otani

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/how-good-is-shohei-otani/

Back in November, we contributed a post about Japanese superstar Shohei Otani, noting that the 22-year-old hurler already projected as one of the best pitchers on the planet, and would be one of the most coveted international imports in baseball history if his NPB team, Nippon Ham, decided to make him available to MLB clubs. Since that time, Otani’s 2016 season has only expanded his legend.

On the mound, Otani has had another great year, allowing a 2.25 ERA in 16 starts and racking up 140 strikeouts in 116 innings. But his real coming out party has been at the plate, as he’s forced his way into the lineup on a regular basis, becoming a legitimate two-way player. In 301 plate appearances, he’s hitting .333/.435/.631, which means he leads the league in OPS. With all due respect to Madison Bumgarner and the #PitchersWhoRake hashtag, Otani looks like something the likes of which we don’t currently have in MLB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGS0lIiXkRQ

i was just about to start a thread on him after reading the same article! if an american league team could acquire him and put him at DH on days when he isn't pitching...O_O

new favorite player

www.fangraphs.com/blogs/will-otani-change-the-game/

the NL vs AL choice is going to be very interesting

it sucks knowing that he's inevitably going to play for the dodgers, red sox, or yankees.

i imagine his chances of being a star pitcher are greater than his chances of being a star hitter, so NL would make the most sense -- but if he could be a #1 pitcher and an above-average DH...

that's the dream, at least. if the guy can actually hit .300 that's an entirely different league than Bumbarger, whose slash line is .186/.236/.327. we've had guys like that before...Grienke, Zambrano, etc.

To better understand Otani I spoke with Anri Uechi of Kyodo News, who covers Masahiro Tanaka and the Yankees but also has followed the career of Otani. I asked Uechi for a comps on Otani as a pitcher and hitter. He came up with a blend of Yu Darvish — only with more velocity – and Christian Yelich. Hey, not bad.

O_O

if he's going to alternate between pitching and the outfield we can all look forward to many years of waiting for him to be off the disabled list

reportedly coming

http://nypost.com/2017/09/13/japanese-two-way-superstar-coming-to-majors/

yep, seems to be the word

dave cameron: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/how-to-sign-shohei-otani/

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/is-ohtani-really-more-valuable-in-the-al/

we need a mod to change the thread title (otani > ohtani)

congrats Yankees

supposedly both are correct? https://medium.com/@DanielBrim/is-it-otani-or-ohtani-4e6548c27ed6

tbh he should demand in his contract that he gets 大谷

https://i.imgur.com/hOIuAdK.gif

yeah I thought I'd just erred but i've consistently been seeing Ohtani and Otani in different media.

Breaking: players union sets Monday deadline to resolve posting issue. So in 4 days otani could know if he'll be able to jump to mlb in '18.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 16, 2017

Brian: Where does “the Mets are CONSIDERING pursuing Ohtani” rank among saddest baseball offseason rumors? Is there anything to consider?

Dave Cameron: Any team that doesn’t have, at minimum, an intern putting together a powerpoint to send to the agent just in case should be embarrassed.

It’s a free lottery ticket. All 30 teams should make a bare minimum “we’re interested if you are!” pitch

Elementary brain: Otani

Expanding brain: Ohtani

Galactic brain: Ōtani

— Sung Min Kim (@sung_minkim) November 22, 2017

Over the weekend, executives across baseball hunkered down in their offices to fill out a document. One general manager called it “the most important paper I’ve written since college.” Another scrambled to find someone to translate his version into proper Japanese. An executive, short on sleep, long on frustration, said: “This is so stupid.”

In anticipation of Shohei Ohtani’s posting, the agents for the 23-year-old Japanese star sent a memo to all 30 teams, asking them to explain why Ohtani fits in their organization. Some executives rolled their eyes. Others saw it as an opportunity to differentiate themselves. Each wound up doing the same thing: Putting together their best sales pitch for what everyone agrees is a once-in-a-lifetime player, not simply because of his talent as a pitcher and hitter but the absurd discount in which teams may realize well over $100 million in surplus value.

“Shohei Ohtani,” one agent said, “is like the baseball version of the new Amazon headquarters.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/four-reasons-mlbs-hot-stove-lukewarm-022841950.html

oh man, if you're a team submitting only a "paper" in response to the ohtani request, you are so not going to be chosen

yeah u gotta have holograms at a minimum these days

we need a mod to change the thread title (otani > ohtani)

― Karl Malone, Wednesday, November 15, 2017 11:39 AM (one week ago)

yeah no, should we start spelling Osaka "Ohsaka"?

One general manager called it “the most important paper I’ve written since college.” ... an executive, short on sleep, long on frustration, said: “This is so stupid.”

I really see both sides of this. On one hand, he's a great young talent that will sign for far below his market value. On the other hand, almost every Japanese player who made the jump to MLB was overhyped and underdelivered.

is it true that the ball in the Japan leagues is smaller, because if so that seems like it could make a world of difference

I am sure this dude will be pretty decent in the majors but "once-in-a-lifetime"...idk they were saying that about Yu Darvish and he's one of the better guys to come over

Al R. B.
Yeah see the brief discussion on that upthread. A lot of the media has been referring to him with the ‘h’ recently so I didn’t realize that it can other way.

Shohei Ohtani obliterated the Philadelphia Phillies, alas pic.twitter.com/Asam3vY7qt

— John Trupin (@JohnTrupin) December 1, 2017

Some news out on finalists...

It would be pretty cool if he ended up going to someone totally unexpected.

I noticed Houston was not listed as out.

not the Yankees!

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/shohei-ohtani-has-narrowed-his-list/

The angry twitter comments were so great.

it's definitely an odd mix of teams ... he wants west coast, but cubs and rangers still in play; he wants a smaller market, but LA and chicago and dallas are still in play. it would be so weird if he went to the padres.

hahahah that would be awesome

it seems pretty he'll actually end up on the cubs so i'm just hoping he doesn't go to the dodgers.

pretty unlikely, that is. meant to delete "pretty" because i overuse it and deleted the wrong word.

If ohtani goes to the cubs and stanton says no to the cardinals because stl is a shithole, I am going to be so cranky this off-season

kinda hoping he goes to the mariners only in part because they're one of "my teams" but mostly because before the posting i called mariners to my friend and i would love to be right for ONCE

mariners would be pretty boring tbh

padres padres padres

it is going to be the Dodgers and you know it.

I think Ohtani goes to Seattle. There are Japanese there. And if they had Ichiro make a call, my God, to a Japanese kid that's like hearing Ruth and Dimaggio and Mantle and God.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) December 4, 2017

The key now for the Mariners is to make sure Ohtani doesn’t visit Seattle until the sun comes back out in June

— keithlaw (@keithlaw) December 3, 2017

this is something

On Shohei Ohtani, @jimcallisMLB reports grades of "80 raw power, 65 speed, 80 arm, [and] 50 hit," in a @mike_petriello article: https://t.co/wySSnmiKnw

Here are some hitters with similar grades: pic.twitter.com/R61g519MsF

— Jeff Zimmerman (@jeffwzimmerman) December 6, 2017

It's real nice in Seattle right now.

I mean the Mariners will find a way to waste his potential if they do sign him but it would be cool to have something to be stupidly optimistic about.

65 speed seems low, people were saying the kid can really fly

Angels landed him.

unexpected!

where did y'all think he was gonna go

i thought either padres or mariners i guess? i'm not really sure why

I mean I would have loved for him to go somewhere strange like that but idk when these hyped up prospects go to teams w/o huge payrolls or a shot at contention

Angels finally have some protection for Trout.

god bless mike trout but it just seems weird that someone would move to orange county or play for mike scioscia unless they absolutely had to

does this mean Pujols will be playing some 1b?

will be even more depressing when the angels miss the 2018 post-season

@ChrisGimenez5
So does this mean I’m not the best hitting pitcher in the AL anymore

Agent (not from CAA) on Ohtani signing: “Eppler made this happen. 100% all him. He has been on Ohtani since he was in HS and I will bet he absolutely crushed the presentation. This is a credit to him.” Eppler visited Japan while with NYY and after becoming LAA GM in Oct. 2015.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 8, 2017

excited by this news, pumped for trout to hopefully get a shot in his prime

we'll see how far 2 stars can carry a team, maybe

don't forget simmons

ugh for a split second i thought you meant bill

lol

ask randy johnson and curt shilling xp

...Luis Gonzalez was pretty good too.

yeah sure, but damn LAA looked bleak 24 hrs ago

Surprised nobody posted this yet (not-slow news day I guess!):

A physical obtained Tuesday shows Ohtani was previously diagnosed with a first-degree UCL sprain in his right (throwing) elbow.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2749018-shohei-ohtani-reportedly-dealing-with-elbow-injury

*james andrews creeps around a corner in the distance*

Ohtani has a page https://t.co/hMpKMXSjzm

Ohtani has a page

🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨

Ohtani has a page

(Looks statistically a bit like Will Myers and Robbie Ray smushed together holy heck)

— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) December 22, 2017

the Angels make moves to facilitate the Experiment

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-angels-have-cleared-the-way-for-shohei-ohtani/

mortal, to start

https://www.mlb.com/news/shohei-ohtani-shows-electric-stuff-in-debut/c-267119522

Shohei Ohtani is batting 2nd and DHing for the #Angels today against the Padres in Peoria.

— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) February 26, 2018

niiice

Pujols made another $65,000 today

Lol

daaaang, he walked in his first two PA's (the first one in particular was impressive) and then hit an RBI single before being taken out. Ohtani-fever!

https://www.mlb.com/video/extended-cut-ohtanis-debut/c-1876969983?tid=69972428

you can watch all the footage of him pitching and hitting there from his first two games. that slide scared me a little!

https://www.mlb.com/video/c-1878145883?tid=vtp_top_50

Ohtani recorded all eight of his outs via strikeout. With his pitch count at 52, he's likely done for the day.

— Maria I. Guardado (@mi_guardado) March 2, 2018

this game doesn't seem to be mlb.com at all?

looks like a "b game" according to other tweets from Guardado, so the competition might not have been as strong as even a normal early March spring training game

you'll have to do more than THAT to impress us, ohtani

*eats doritos*

yeah it's a back fields thing against brewers minor leaguers (i think). keston hiura did double off him, think there were other hits

i'm kinda surprised they wasted a 52-pitch ohtani spring training start on a b-game, though. you'd think they want to give him as many opportunities as possible to face major leaguers before the season starts

idk. plus they're at home this afternoon (not that the cactus league involves a lot of travel)

Shohei Ohtani, breaking ball (from today). 😳 pic.twitter.com/pTrmll2bDi

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) March 2, 2018

otoh, i don't think it mattered that this was a minor leaguer

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-dodgers-angels-ohtani-20180307-story.html

this is nagl on the dodgers part imo. boo hoo, you had to sit in some pointless unproductive meetings, welcome to every day of my life

otm

have the Angels said if they'll consider bypassing the DH when Ohtani pitches, so he can hit? Presents a problem when he's relieved, obviously.

bypassing = eschewing

could they not list him as the DH, who happened to also do some pitching at the start of the game? tbh i don't really know the DH rules

The designated hitter rule allows teams to use another player to bat in place of the pitcher. Because the pitcher is still part of the team's nine defensive players, the designated hitter -- or "DH" -- does not take the field on defense.

The DH must be selected prior to the game, and that selected hitter must come to bat at least one time -- unless the opposing team changes pitchers prior to that point. A team that chooses not to select a DH prior to a game is barred from using a DH for the rest of that game. A player who enters the game in place of the DH -- either as a pinch-hitter or a pinch-runner -- becomes the DH in his team's lineup thereafter.

If a player serving as the DH is later used on defense, he continues to bat in his same lineup spot. But for the rest of the game, his team cannot use a DH to bat in place of the pitcher. A team is also barred from using a DH for the rest of the game if the pitcher moves from the mound to another defensive position, a player pinch-hits for any other player and then becomes the pitcher, or the current pitcher pinch-hits or pinch-runs for the DH.

not sure anything here except that last bit even approaches covering Otani's situation.

i don't think he can be a "DH" while pitching because, well, he's pitching. and playing defence etc.
i think this is all we need to know:
"A team that chooses not to select a DH prior to a game is barred from using a DH for the rest of that game."

My understanding is that Otani can switch from pitcher to outfielder (and then can be switched out?)... I think there's something saying as much upthread but hey I'm lazy lol.

lit up by tijuana today, apparently

sure he can, Al, but i'm wondering why not bat him *while* he's in the game pitching, and using no DH is the only way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkDDlgh8dAY

that bat flip sucks

bat flips are cool but the spring training variety is like doing the Mutombo "not in my house" after you block a shot by a 3rd grader

ok i am going to hell but i did not expect that bat boy and i may have laughed super loud

this is an attention-getting quote

“He’s basically like a high school hitter because he’s never seen a good curveball,” the scout said. “He’s seen fastballs and changeups. And you’re asking a high school hitter to jump to the major leagues?"

https://sports.yahoo.com/verdict-shohei-ohtanis-bat-not-good-023611674.html

i don't know if i trust any scout that compares the pitchers in the second-best professional league in the world to a USA high school league.

this does seem like a plausible scenario though:

They [the scouts interviewed for the story] also believe major league pitchers are going to punish him with inside fastballs, that his swing contains flaws in balance and mechanics, and that he needs at least 500 plate appearances of seasoning in the minor leagues to give him a chance at becoming a productive major league hitter.

which would suck, because he's probably not going to get those 500 at bats, ever, at least not while he's holding his own in a major league rotation.

Ichiro had a lot of doubters too, though at the same time there are no scouts saying about Otani what was said by at least one major scout about Ichiro (he'd hit .300 every year, vie for batting titles, win a gold glove or two.)

afaik no scouts are saying anything similar about Otani's bat, i mean

are there rules that prevent him from hitting in the minors on his off days?

i would not have paid any heed to that story if it wasn't by Jeff Passan, who's fairly reputable i think

those scouts could be wrong of course

xpost
i don't think so, other than burning up an option year? seems like the main obstacle would just be the logical nightmare of flying him back and forth across the country at a rate higher than his teammates, as he's already trying to pull double-duty learning pitching and hitting. or i might be wrong, maybe there's a rule that prevents shuttling back from the majors/minors too frequently?

players sent to the minors have to stay there 10 days (exceptions for DH 26th men and replacing an injured player). and in any case i don't think they'd want their starter being away from the team like that

https://i.imgur.com/ymfE628.jpg

on the plus side i bet his xFIP is pretty good for that game

His first inning was fantastic tbqf.

lol

EJ:
Obviously the spring is a tiny sample size, but if you were the Angels would you start Ohtani in AAA or in the bigs?

Keith Law:
Don’t care about spring stats, as you know. If he’s not able to figure out this delivery issue – I wrote he’s not repeating it and getting to his release point – before Opening Day, I might leave him in extended spring training to get some one-on-one work in controlled situations. I think sending him to Salt Lake is kind of a bad idea all around, other than that the Buzz’s ownership would be ecstatic.

So first mound appearance will be Sunday afternoon in Oakland.

batting 1.000

getting overpowered by a fastball and sneaking one thru is the new market inefficiency

dummies on LA sports radio were going off on Ohtani a couple weeks ago with hot takes about him not being ready.. wasn't sure why they were so mad. the dude signed for 3m and these dudes were having a meltdown like he signed for 150m.

Pujols is on pace for 162 HRs.

wrong thread i know...

Japanese two-way player Shohei Ohtani, who singled in his first at-bat in the majors on Thursday, was held out because the A's started a left-hander.

Is this gonna be SOP?

1-2-3 inning to start his career

there's no one at the coliseum lol

only 35,000 people saw shohei ohtani's first MLB pitching appearance. and of those 35,000, only about 15,000 even knew who ohtani was. but the other 20,000 people all started their own band

actually yeah it looks like less than 35,000

second inning not going so well

$3M for a closer/pinch hitter is a pretty good deal, imho.

I think he showed he belongs in the rotation.

he's allowed 3 runs through 5 innings (all on a home run), struck out 6, walked 1, hit the high 90s with his fastball, struck someone out on an 88 mph changeup, and had wicked breaking pitches! not bad for a first major league start. he belongs in every single MLB rotation and would be the #1 starter on a fair amount of them.

there's no way his arm could take being in the rotation for every team

Phrasing. pic.twitter.com/0nhaHxOM9i

— Adam (@RonSwansonTrio) April 1, 2018

Will, what do you mean? I think all teams are leaning toward having their ace pitch 180-200 innings, the other starters 160 and under. It's just evolving that way. (Some historically low number threw 162 last year.)

he means literally pitching for every single team

ah the ol' online humor mistranslator!

i am excited about...shohei ohtani

The Show Hey Kid.

there was a pretty questionable discussion of ohtani's physique at the beginning of the inning :/

his homer tonight barely got out but it also was a pretty decent pitch, i wasn't sure he had that in him

was it the Angels' broadcasters, kk?

https://i.imgur.com/eeDVk5X.gifv

haha aww cute

also sorry morbs yeah my joke was dumb he can't pitch for all 30 teams at once (altho i guess if he pitched 1 game per team, 30 games, 5-6 innings each? joke doesn't even track)

oppo off kluber

okay maybe he can hit, so what

AGAIN!

Shohei Ohtani knows a thing about encores. pic.twitter.com/Lmmw5HNecq

— MLB (@MLB) April 4, 2018

damn

Language at 29 seconds -- guess MLB doesn't respect the game.

Bot 2nd: Angels
S. Ohtani homered (435 ft.) to deep center

Mike Trout now the second best player on his team.

whoa nellie, let's wait on that

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/shohei-ohtani-has-already-verified-something/

In his debut, Ohtani maxed out at 99 mph on the fastball and averaged 97.8 mph on the same pitch while also showcasing a darting, 90 mph splitter and breaking ball. If Ohtani can approximate anything like the 19.6% swinging-strike rate of his debut and continue to exhibit solid command, he will be an ace in short order.

Shohei Ohtani's 112.8 mph single tonight is the #Angels' hardest-hit ball of the season so far. It it their hardest base hit since a 113.6 mph Mike Trout single last August 30.

— David Adler (@_dadler) April 4, 2018

jesus

perfect thru 5, i think?

how's anybody ever hit this guy

also, 10 K

pitchers are still ahead of hitters though at this point in the season

i think

thru 6

Damn

shame

12 Ks 😯

Thinking I should maybe start paying attention to this guy.

in a playoff game, if shohei was pitching, would you really have pujols dh for him? not sure i would

Scioscia would

probably

I’m not really convinced having ohtani hit on the days he pitches is giving the angels all that much extra value

over the course of the season that makes sense. and you don't want to overwork him. i'm just thinking, in a playoff series.. i kinda want that bat in the game

ya, if he keeps this up – that would make a lot of sense.

in interleague away games, he's gonna bat regardless. looks like the next interleague away series for the Angels is @Coors in May, but it's only a 2-game set. So it's possible that the earliest we'll see him pitch and bat in the same game is @LAD in July.

Thru his first two starts as a pitcher, Shohei Ohtani has worked an 0-2 count in 48.9% of batters faced, more than 2x the MLB average https://t.co/48WTsMvFMm pic.twitter.com/x8cAUfBXnP

— Baseball Reference (@baseball_ref) April 9, 2018

GOATani

a 3-run triple tonight, looks like?

Next pitching once again on a Sunday in KC; I forget the precise meaning of "Sunday pitcher" in the deadball era.

0.4 fWAR hitting and 0.6 pitching, so far

i know it's kind of silly to start looking at that this early, but it's fun.

At what point does Scoscia consider moving him out of the 8th spot?

mid-october.

Moving him into th 8 spot is progressive for soscia otani is a pitcher after all

Pleased about today postponement as it forces the Angels off their lame "every Sunday" shtick. Now S.O. pitches Tuesday night at home vs Boston, with eight days' rest!

shohei don't hurt 'em

Blisters no no no no

they're saying he should be good for his next start... but Aaron Sanchez missed a good chunk of last year with blister issues they made worse by bringing him back too soon on two separate occasions.

shohei says it won't effect his hitting...maybe he's a full-time DH while he heals?

Shohei's foot speed has got to be his most underrated quality. Faster than Upton or Simmons, for example. Fastest DH by a large margin.

DH Shohei Ohtani 27.9 ft/s
RF Jarrod Dyson 29.2
CF Byron Buxton 30.6
LF Derek Fisher 29.5
SS Trea Turner 29.9
3B Scott Kingery 29.4
2B Ozzie Albies 29.1
1B Cody Bellinger 28.3
C Jorge Alfaro 27.8

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sprint_speed_leaderboard?year=2018

the slowest sprint speed in all of MLB is pujols (22.6 ft/s)

I believe you mean 22.6 s/ft

lol

i remember when he used to be pretty nimble for a big guy! seems like forever ago

batting 6th!

apparently he hit 100 eight times last night... rest of MLB has 9 this year

https://www.mlb.com/cut4/ohtani-hit-101-mph-fastest-by-starter-this-season/c-273712152

Hicks has hit 100 at least 35x this year

maybe MLB starters

Have the Angels addressed whether he'll play a position at all this season, or will he be a pure DH?

I'm only going by the boxscore, but he didn't seem to pitch particularly well yesterday.

I watched it, and he didn't.

threw gas tho

apparently he throws one (1) curveball per game; the one i saw last night was pretty decent, if mostly for the sheer surprise of him throwing something in the mid-to-high 70s

Fun game tonight so far.

Any idea why Shohei got pulled for a pinch hitter?

sprained his ankle apparently

about to start vs M's

Are we to assume he starts in the Bronx vs Tanaka next Sunday?

slotted for Wednesday night in Detroit now

apparently threw a 101 pitch last night

y'all watching?

In his first 8 starts, the opp are hitting .375 off his fastball and .081 off everything else in his repertoire.

basketball game on tonight iirc

Left the game in the fifth, was blowing on his pitching hand... blisters?

yeah blister is what I'm hearing too

James:
Do the Angels need to change how they use Ohtani to maximize their potential? Even as a rival fan it is tough to watch Scioscia send Pujols and Kinsler out at the top of the order while Ohatni sits a third of the time.

Jay Jaffe:
I think they can push Ohtani harder as far as DH duty goes, but given his blister issues and workload concerns, I don’t see them pushing him harder on the mound. Scioscia needs to bat Kinsler much lower in the lineup, and Arte needs to authorize Pujols’ release, but those are separate issues from Ohtani’s usage.

Even as a rival fan it is tough to watch Scioscia send Pujols and Kinsler out at the top of the order while Ohatni sits a third of the time.

Kinsler has been warming up: .900 OBP with 4 HRs over the past 2 weeks.

Otani is .750 over the same stretch (and now will be possibly benched until his blisters subside).

uh oh

Shohei Ohtani will be placed on the disabled list with a grade 2 sprain of the UCL. He underwent a PRP and Stem Cell injection yesterday with Dr. Steve Yoon in Los Angeles. He will be re-evaluated in 3 weeks and we will update his plan of care at that time.

— Angels PR (@LAAngelsPR) June 8, 2018

oh please no

I guess the blister was on his UCL... lol.

Poor guy, I really hope this doesn't turn out like Daisuke Matsuzaka pt 2.

I'mma lobby for a minimum of 6 DL spots on any fantasy league I join next year.

well there goes his All-Star DH spot

i guess the rest of MLB is gonna suck along with the Mets now

Baseball just got a lot less interesting this year.

I'm trying to recall the last time a black magic solution for avoiding TJ surgery actually worked ...?

tanaka is the only example i can recall

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23737157/mlb-need-know-shohei-ohtani-injury

“Everything I’m hearing is that the reality is, he probably will need Tommy John surgery,” @pedrogomezESPN reports grim news for Shohei Ohtani and @Angels just now on @sportscenter. “The earliest we might see him, should he have TJ surgery, would be the 2020 season.”

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) June 11, 2018

this reminds me a lot of Strasburg

this really sucks

Source: #Angels cautiously optimistic Shohei Ohtani will play again this season — at least as a hitter and possibly in both roles. @MLB @MLBNetwork

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) June 11, 2018

Scioscia said the Angels’ medical staff is “very optimistic” about Shohei Ohtani’s prognosis. Still two to three weeks from seeing whether PRP injection took hold. Ohtani is taking one-armed swings in batting cage.

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) June 18, 2018

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/shohei-ohtani-and-the-implications/

TS: ohtani batting with one arm vs pujols

lol

https://deadspin.com/the-story-of-shohei-ohtanis-legendary-bp-sessions-from-1827115452

sigh

straight lol at hyperbole-comparisons of soft-toss BP to in-game (esp World Series) dongs.

if people in the game are saying it, it probably means something

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/06/shohei-ohtani-cleared-to-begin-hitting-program.html

While Ohtani certainly isn’t entirely out of the woods just yet, it’s obviously an encouraging update for the Angels that the platelet-rich plasma and stem cell injections he received earlier this month have resulted in some meaningful improvement. Eppler indicated yesterday that if Ohtani were strictly a designated hitter, he’d likely have been cleared right away. That, coupled with today’s clearance, makes it seem likely that Ohtani will, at the very least, return to the Angels’ lineup at some point this summer — if not the rotation.

0-for-4 in his return last night

24 today! not in the lineup

So it's not loaded stadiums or ballparks

off the bench for heroics

https://www.mlb.com/news/shohei-ohtanis-homer-leads-angels-to-victory/c-284931188

what a shot

cautiously optimistic

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2018/7/20/17594856/shohei-ohtani-angels-elbow-injury-update-throwing

These splits look ugly and seem to be getting uglier...

2018 Season vs. LHP:
.170/.254/.245 22K:6BB

July:
.203/.261/.422 23K:5BB

Post All-Star:
.175/.214/.400 13K:2BB

Last 7 days:
.100/.100/.150 6K:0BB

...he must lurk here.

"closer" to pitching sez the Sosh

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24306284/shohei-ohtani-los-angeles-angels-closer-pitching-team-thought-mike-scioscia-said

Ohtani is set to throw a bullpen session this Saturday.

pitches Sunday night!

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24526952/shohei-ohtani-returning-angels-rotation

hell yeah! i was trying to keep my hopes realistic

they must be pretty confident that he's healthy given that they're out of the playoff hunt...

velocity cratered in the third

http://www.latimes.com/sports/angels/la-sp-angels-ohtani-hernandez-20180902-story.html#

"Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism."

tl;dr for Tracer:

Ohtani's velocity trends tonight are absolutely horrifying pic.twitter.com/2l0aUPamUM

— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) September 3, 2018

fuck this

hit 2 homers last night

so I guess that begs the question, if he has TJ tomorrow can he still hit in 2019?

Angels saying it depends what the doctors say (ie they aint saying)

Weiters didn't

Ohtani's Elbow:

Why would LAA want, or let Ohtani pitch this season after the elbow injury? Is there ANY reasoning behind this?

Jay Jaffe:

The Angels had almost nothing to lose by testing Ohtani's elbow. If he has the surgery now, there's a reasonable shot he can still DH for most/all of next season while not pitching, but if they waited until spring for the surgery, he'd be unable to do either.

Jeff Fletcher, who covers the Angels for the Orange County Register, put it well in a tweet:

"If Ohtani had TJ surgery on June 7, 2018 -- the day the sprain was discovered -- he'd be out till 2020.

"If he has it tomorrow, he'll be out till 2020.

"If he has it a week from now, he'll be out till 2020."

absolutely scorching: 240 wRC+, 10 homers in 90 PA since august 1st

https://www.fangraphs.com/splitstool.aspx?playerid=19755&position=DH&splitArr=&strgroup=season&statgroup=1&startDate=2018-08-01&endDate=2018-09-08&filter=&statType=player&autoPt=true&players=&pg=0&pageItems=30&sort=-1,1

official

https://www.mlb.com/news/ohtani-to-undergo-tommy-john-surgery/c-295987406

in games where he pitches, does he get defensive credit for being a pitcher? his defensive adjustment is largely negative because he's played DH 90% of the time, but I would assume that for the plate appearances where he's listed as the pitcher, he'd get a generous positive adjustment

this is from bbref:

Pitcher Positional Adjustment. Now, pitchers also bat, so we need to calculate their Position Player WAR as well. Since pitcher fielding is included in Pitcher WAR, we do not need to consider it here. Pitchers are almost guaranteed to be below replacement hitters and likely no one uses a particular player as a pitcher because they are a good hitter. If that were the case, we might see teams trying for an advantage by routinely using Wilson Valdez as a pitcher or an NL team would always value Jon Lester less than an AL team. Rather, any pitcher hitting is gravy, so the pitcher position adjustment is set so that all pitchers taken together produce zero WAR as position players. As position players, we say a pitcher's games played equals PA/4.

To set the pitcher positional adjustment, we add together every pitcher's Batting Runs, Baserunning Runs,and GIDP Runs = Runs_sum_lg. We also add up their Plate Appearances, PA_sum_lg. The league-wide pitcher positional adjustment is then (-600 * Runs_sum_lg/ PA_sum_lg) which is runs per plate appearance. For a particular player, this number is then multiplied by their plate appearances for their individual positional adjustment.

The top and worst pitcher as position players in 2011 were: best: Carlos Zambrano 7.6 runs, worst: Ryan Dempster -4.8 runs.

note: Some pitchers like Red Ruffing, Bob Lemon and Jim Kaat (as a pinch runner) appeared in many games as a position player, pinch hitter or pinch runner. If we credit them these PA's as just a pitcher then we overvalue their offense, so to handle this we compute a percentage of time as a non-pitcher for all pitchers and they get credit under runs_replacement for this number of games and their runs_position as pitcher are reduced by one minus this factor. Since many of these occurred prior to full play-by-play data, we just use games played data for this adjustment.

non-Pitcher factor
= (Games Played - Games Pitched - .63 * Games as PH or PR)
--------------------------------------------------------
Games Played
.63 is a factor so we value Games Played in the field differently than as a PH or PR which are likely just a single PA.

for example it looks like shohei has about 12-14 plate appearances as a pitcher this season, and the rest of his 177 PA are at DH (plus one or two in left or right field)

his positional adjustment overall as a batter on bbref is -4 runs

yordan alvarez, who's played DH for all 160 of his PAs this year, has a positional adjustment of -3 runs

max scherzer has had 17 plate appearances, and has a positional adjustment of +3 runs

does this make sense? shouldn't he get credit for these PAs as a pitcher?

talking about the positional adjustment for WAR if it wasn't clear

I think the DH adjustment still should be applied because the Angels aren’t forced to bat him when he pitches. the replacement for him when he’s hitting as a pitcher would be another DH.

hmmm that makes sense

I wasn't paying attention to baseball at all last year, so I missed that he got shelled in his two starts, leading to a real quirk in his lifetime stats:

2018 - 51.2 IP, 3.31 ERA
2020 - 1.2 IP
2021 - 47.1 IP, 2.85 ERA

Career ERA: 3.67

He gave up 7 runs in that 1.2 IP. His career ERA would be 3.09 otherwise.

Caption to a photo that turned up on my FB wall:

John Olerud pitching in college at Washington State. He was 15-0 his sophomore year with 23 homers and hit .464.

More details here:

https://247sports.com/college/washington-state/article/john-olerud-wsu-baseball-1998-season-was-simply-magical-211886430/

Facebook/Twitter meme, so I don't know how trustworthy, but:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GBV2oDsW8AAXOYZ.jpg:large

From the man's owns hands:

"Shohei Otani" is visible alongside various bank account and wire-transfer information and the word "loan."

Can we keep our libellous Shohei speculation in one thread please

Shohei impending ban from baseball announcement due in 3 days; my sources have confirmed

The latest on the firing of Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter amid questions about the transfer of $4.5 million from Ohtani’s bank account to a bookmaking operation under federal investigation, from ESPN’s Tisha Thompson: https://t.co/M8qfg9lElk pic.twitter.com/reo8s272Pb

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 20, 2024

the most likely explanation of this is Ippei falling on his sword?

or getting pushed onto it

The story in my head (which is most generous to Shohei) is: Ippei got that gambling gene, Shohei helps him out a bit, Shohei/Shohei's lawyers say "hey, you can't give money to your right hand man to gamble as a top sports player, heard of pete rose?" Shohei says "Ippei, it's time to go "

^^so yeah, a mix of falling and pushing. Obvs heaps of conjecture but that seems like the simplest explanation with the facts laid out. That said, I am fully ready to laugh into the abyss when Shohei gets banned from baseball and the Dodgers stay on the hook for 700mil

Can we keep our libellous Shohei speculation in one thread please

― Roman Anthony gets on his horse (gyac), Wednesday, March 20, 2024 3:54 PM (five minutes ago)

This thread is only for people who spell his family name OTANI or 大谷, people like... Shohei Otani himself.

Surely getting banned from MLB for gambling would be a breach of contract and invalidate the Doyers salary payment obligations, no?

If not, well played *checks notes* Nez Balelo

Maybe. Dodgers stayed on the hook for Bauer the whole time 'that' mess went down iirc.

The really interesting question here is, suppose my story is relatively correct and with the feds looking into it, mlb/feds can see shohei did transfer to illegal bookies.... Is Ohtani too big to fall? It's obviously in the interest of MLB to sweep this one as deep under the rug as possible, but do they have the levers to do that? Do the feds care?

Maybe it's a trap to bring him back to the Korean or Japanese leagues. "Banned from MLB, what a shame"

He and Bauer could finally be bunkmates

So he either goes 5/5 5hr's or 0/5 5k's tonight right

Cannot believe this is happening. Wake me up in a week when he's suspended or when he beats the rap. It's all too much for me

feeling some whiplash after only having just learned about the existence of ippei from the breathless sports illustrated article that calls ippei shohei's bestest and most beloved friend

Verducci’s prose has really fallen off. Are we sure that’s him? I mean this is giving big Allegra Coleman energy:

But like an Italian sports car, even at rest his angularity and aura connotate agility and speed. The power is all under the hood.

I’m bumping this non canonical thread solely for Steve Shasta

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJMwnsvXUAEX04s?format=jpg&name=small

I'm kinda curious about who knew what and when between LAD/MLB/Otani's PR dept because Ippei getting fired only AFTER the story broke AND his interview(s) is incredibly sketchy...

I don’t know the exact exact timeline but I think the LA Times story (ippei stealing) dropped right before the ESPN one (two stories). Ohtani’s agents are professionals, I don’t see how the first interview fuckup happened

https://i.imgur.com/K4HSNvI.jpeg