let's get excited about...shohei otani

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

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