let's get excited about...shohei otani

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.