shohei ohtani alert

shit he just got hit in the right hand by a pitch

does not look great

Shohei Ohtani is the first American League pitcher to be intentionally walked since Jim Katt in 1970

homer and two walks yesterday, but got shelled on the mound

somehow i always miss his pitching days. when he's out of the game as a pitcher, does he switch to DH, keeping his spot in the batting order and taking whoever replaced pujols out of the lineup, i guess? or do they just take him out of the game completely at that point?

they don't get a DH

although it *kind* of seems like you should be able to use the DH on a non-pitcher if you want? (you cannot, by rule)

Guess who started Ohtani in the fantasy playoffs yesterday!! :((

maddon has several times shifted ohtani to the outfield when he's done pitching, but not last night

0-5 tonight…the guy could really use some time off

Ohtani giving CPR to his dead bat pic.twitter.com/aFoZbMw4sG

— Every Shohei Ohtani Highlight (@ohtanimoments) April 12, 2022

while looking up bobby witt jr's sprint and home to first speeds to see how how fast he is (A: very fast), i unexpectedly found OHTANI at the top of the 2022 leaderboard for fastest from home to first! 4.06 seconds. i was shocked, because his sprint speed (27.6 ft/s this year, 28.8 last year)is more 70th percentile. and not a fluke, either - in 2021 ohtani ranked 5th for home to first, with 4.05 seconds.

impressive - he must kick up into his highest gear much more quickly than the competition

When he retires, if I'm still alive--50/50?--I'll think "I really didn't appreciate that guy while he was playing." Because honestly, I get a little tired of reading about his every waking movement.

He pitched great today: 7 shutout innings, 6 H/0 BB/11 K. MLB.com (not at all atypical of the way they cover him): "Stop us if you've heard this one: Shohei Ohtani did something nobody has since the Great Bambino."

What he did: "Hitting third and making his first start on the mound at Fenway Park, Ohtani became the first starting pitcher to bat in one of the top four spots in a game at the historic ballpark since Babe Ruth did so on Sept. 20, 1919."

Translation, if you feel his two-way abilities have already been duly recognized (and rewarded): "He played."

Feel like there needs to be a thread “Clemenza vs MLB.com headlines”

what about my "fastest from home to first base" tidbit, though? now THAT's what i'm talking about

First career grand slam tonight. And another HR too

all 100 of shohei ohtani’s home runs but it speeds up by 10% after each home run pic.twitter.com/l1hYPwy6eV

— Cut4 (@Cut4) May 15, 2022

A work of art

Feel like there needs to be a thread “Clemenza vs MLB.com headlines”
― Michael F Gill

Lead story right now on mlb.com, the day after the Jays beat Ohtani with five runs in six innings:

Force strong with this one

Shohei Ohtani's latest power: He doesn't need to tag you. He sends you to the dugout with his mind.

Ha!

To be fair, he still actually didn’t look bad in that start.

8 RBIs on Tuesday, then on Wednesday 8 shutout innings and 13 Ks

going to go out on a limb and say nothing like that's ever been done before

Angels only won one of those games lol

damn, 94 game score on that last start, too.

pretttty good

going to go out on a limb and say nothing like that's ever been done before

if anyone else, it was probably Ruth, and i don't think they struck out that many people back then

Absolutely unreal

A night after homering twice and setting a career-high with eight RBIs at the plate, Ohtani set another career high with 13 strikeouts over eight scoreless innings to help lift the Angels to a 5-0 win over the Royals on Wednesday night at Angel Stadium. Unsurprisingly, Ohtani, who retired 23 of the last 24 batters he faced, became the first player in AL/NL history to have at least eight RBIs in a game and strike out at least 10 batters the next day.

Never had an 8-RBI game:
 
Babe Ruth
Henry Aaron
Barry Bonds
Albert Pujols
 
Never had a 13-K game:
 
Lefty Grove
Catfish Hunter
Jack Morris
Tom Glavine
 
Ohtani did both - in consecutive days.
 
🦄

— Paul Hembekides (@PaulHembo) June 23, 2022

i am...weird not impressed at all by that list of pitchers, but for hitters, that's eye-opening.

I mean so much of that is luck - how often is a 3-4 line with 2 HRs gonna result in 8 RBIs?

exactly shohei ohtani amount of the time

xp not to mention in a loss . . . to the royals

Sorry, but a little more Shohei Derangement Syndrome on mlb.com (lead story):

Ho-hum...just a little more history for Shohei

Shohei Ohtani became the first player since the RBI became an official stat in 1920 to strike out 10 on the mound, drive in two runs and steal a base.

He also scored a run--how did they fail to mention that?

Next year the league will five extra wild cards and still Ohtani and Trout won’t make the playoffs.

I did not know he threw this hard

101.2 MPH FROM SHOHEI OHTANI!! THE HARDEST FASTBALL OF HIS MLB CAREER!!

pic.twitter.com/DHclcTxw5q

— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) July 23, 2022

he was really humming through 6 innings last night, then couldn’t get an out in the 7th

if we played 7-inning games that’s when the closer would come in. ~think abt it~

I never knew that--for one season, anyway--Fergie Jenkins was such a good hitter. In 1971, the year he won his Cy (and put up a 10.1 bWAR), he had a slash line of .243/.282/.478, hit six HR, and knocked in 20. There are--according to a graphic on FB today--nine pitchers with 20 wins and 20 RBI in the same season, and Jenkins is the only one later than 1948 (Bob Lemon). That'll be a hard one for Ohtani to match.

he did manage to be the first to win 10 and hit 30 HRs in the same season

i was looking at greg maddux's stats again, the other day. he only touched 20 wins twice, both in the early 90s, despite having an extraordinarily consistent, excellent career featuring a bunch of braves teams that were good throughout the 90s

ohtani has 11 stolen bases, and 9 times caught stealing this year

This is a pro-Ohtani MVP piece, making the case that WAR can't adequately capture his value:

https://www.mlb.com/news/shohei-ohtani-mvp-race-value-by-war

It does, though, in point #4, get at something I was clumsily trying to explain last year (not sure if I posted about it here; I'd talk about it with friends): that his two-wayness can also present a problem for his manager in having to make a lot of other decisions that other managers don't have to. Basically, he becomes the primary focus you have to work around at all times.

This is a small cost for a huge return--I realize that! But I think it's part of the whole picture.

I don't really get the argument. Did people say that about David Ortiz or Edgar Martinez or other outstanding DHs who rarely took the field?

He so happens to be on the same roster as one of the best players ever, who has battled some serious injuries the past few years and could use some "DH rest". But Ohtani would be the best hitter on two thirds of all other MLB clubs. Why wouldn't you want to get him as many at bats as possible?

yeah, agreed. the same "problem" that ohtani causes (not being able to use the DH to give other position players rest) is the same one that any team with a good DH has to confront

in some places it's called "a good problem to have"

also, gotta say, until this season, not having a dedicated spot (DH) to rotate tiring position players into was the lot of ...every single national league manager of the last century+

fwiw i think judge will win the mvp and it won't be particularly close

suspect ohtani will have some more seasons of being the runaway WAR leader like last year, so might as well let someone else have a turn this year while you can justify it

judge is getting near 10.0 fWAR, also, just scanning the list of all-time single season HR records, and it's all sosa, mcgwire, bonds. i try not to be too puritanical about but in the same way that i wanted pujols to get ahead of a-rod, it will pretty cool for a non ped player to hit 60+ HRs (please judge and pujols, don't let me down via news in the future)

I don’t know why, but I feel like being a top hitter and a top pitcher can’t go on for very long. I can’t rationalize it, he’s obviously insanely talented…. Maybe it was his rocky start to pitching in the majors? I hope he keeps doing this for a very long time, but the deep recesses of my brain are like “literally impossible.”

cc otm

I wonder what it’d do for ohtani’s WAR if he played right field on his non-pitching days instead of DH.

would depend on how badly he sucked out there