shohei ohtani alert

begins 1st with a single then 3 walks

Will he get an out?

He would not.

ugh, 5 ER

the dreaded infinite (or is it undefined?) ERA

fortunately there is Trout ... 3-run bomb on a 3-0 count

Struck out Springer leading off, so he has an ERA now.

1-2-3 first! It's 45.00.

2nd inning exit :/

dip in velocity may have prompted hook

damn

42-pitch second inning -> shower -> MRI

strained something pronator, no more pitching this year

2-2, BB
4IP 1ER 2BB 5K

Something more than a trivial occurrence:

twitter.com/Angels/status/1386713631207792642

94 at eye-level

"Oh my goodness. OH MY goodness. Shohei Ohtani..." #WeBelieve pic.twitter.com/FNAcTDiXO3

— Justin Groc (@jgroc) May 18, 2021

Don’t think you’re meant to be able to do that

god I would fuckin hate pitching to that guy

whoa

So sad to think he won't make the post-season.

his velo is way way down tonight

I'm reading 89 mph fastballs?

he's throwing up to 95 now in the 4th

2 HRs tonight (Angels are down by 5)

a pittsburgher i follow drove to nyc specifically to see ohtani tonight and lol

2 more HRs tonight

I would never in a million years bet on Ohtani having the season he’s having right now.

Folks need to stop comparing Shohei Ohtani to Babe Ruth

Shohei Ohtani is the first Shohei Ohtani

Nobody’s ever done what he’s done in a half season, and it’s somehow still not getting enough media coverage https://t.co/cGY2CzpeUn

— joon 이준엽 (@joonlee) July 8, 2021

I agree that there aren't enough superlatives to describe what he's doing.

However, when it comes to Ohtani, there can never be enough comparisons to Babe Ruth. Babe f'n Ruth!!

The need for the angels to make the playoffs only grows more and more urgent

when is he a free agent? he will be an LA dodger or a boston red sock or a new york motherfucker in a couple years

yea he seems like one of those players who could singlehandedly rescue the sport but having him play on the West Coast on a team that's 4th in their division sucks. crazy if the Angels miss the playoffs yet again despite having 2 generational talents on their team

it's a team sport

which consists 95% of moments of individual skill

this is one of the hardest hit balls I've ever seen

Ohtani to the MOON. 😳 pic.twitter.com/BeZ3Ek9gF6

— MLB (@MLB) July 10, 2021

fucking absurd man

I don't know about you but I cannot see the ball post-impact with Ohtani's bat. I think he hit it so hard it disintegrated into fucking quarks.

you can just briefly see it shoot straight up, it kind of looks like the 600-foot pop up from Major League

463 feet

It feels like he should be more talked about.

Not here, but in media generally.

watching so many people discover Giannis even though he's been 2x MVP kinda tells me you need some playoff success for that to happen

Thinking about DiMaggio's streak and Richard's 50 in 50, I have the feeling we used to have national conversations about specific athlete in a way we don't anymore? Maybe I'm wrong. But it seems conversations about sports are much more macro and/or focused on the past (how much can we still create content around Michael Jordan, I'm certain more people are aware of Jeter than of Trout or Ohtani).

tom pagnozzi

haha, mais encore?

...

matt pagnozzi :(

ohtani is the first player to be named AL Player of the month in back to back months (June and July) since josh hamilton in 2012

40 HR, 2.79 ERA

Angels are still .500 though

that’s fucking crazy

this season is historic

Orange County doesn’t deserve this dude

i honestly would never have expected him to have a season like this. just did not think this was possible.

Geez

Can confirm

Thought this guy was injured?

The 2025 rotation of healthy Ohtani, Glasgow, Yamamoto, Kershaw keeps me up at night, tossing and turning, cold sweats, mumbling prayers, visions of titanium UCLs, perfect games flash across the ceiling, post-season sweeps celebrations ringing in my ears

Then I wake up and we’re sweeping the braves

it's pretty hard to hit a ball 464 ft, even moreso to slightly opposite field.

Leading the NL in hitting and slugging, but Betts still #1 in bWAR (and OBP).

In his MVP and MVP runner-up seasons of 2021-2022, his bWAR for batting was 4.9 and 3.4 respectively, he's already at 2.4 and on pace for over 9.0, which is even more impressive considering how much of his previous WAR value was due to his pitching.

Wonder if a team's ever had two 10+ WAR guys.

Good place to start, the '27 Yankees: Ruth, 12.6; Gehrig, 11.9. Beyond that, probably not.

yeah, at least by fWAR, there have only been a handful of seasons where multiple players reached 10.0+ fWAR:

2001: Barry Bonds (12.5, SFG) and Randy Johnson (10.4, ARI)
1965: Willie Mays (10.7, SFG) and Sandy Koufax (10.0, LAD)
1961: Mickey Mantle (10.3, NYY) and Norm Cash (10.2, DET)
1948: Stan Musial (11.0, STL) and Lou Boudreau (10.9, CLE)
1927: Babe Ruth (12.9, NYY), Lou Gehrig (12.4, NYY), and Rogers Hornsby (10.4, NYG)
1924: Babe Ruth (12.3, NYY) and Rogers Hornsby (12.2, STL)
1921: Babe Ruth (13.7, NYY) and Rogers Hornsby (11.1, STL)
1908: Honus Wagner (11.8, PIT) and Christy Mathewson (10.8, NYG)

Almost three bWARs in 2018: Mookie (10.7), deGrom and Trout at 9.9.

Not enough energy to start looking up all the bWARs, but 2000 had Pedro and A-Rod both above 10.0.

Ohtani's batting average (.365) is currently higher than The Angel's win percentage (.361)

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/shohei-ohtani-gambling-scandal-interpreter-ippei-mizuhara-to-plead-guilty-faces-up-to-33-years-in-prison/

Mizuhara, described by the Attorney's Office as Ohtani's "de facto manager," will plead guilty to one count of bank fraud and one count of subscribing to a false tax return at an arraignment scheduled for May 14. He faces a maximum sentence of 33 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of $1,250,000.

The 39-year-old former interpreter will be required to pay full restitution to his victims, which includes $16,975,010 to Victim A, Ohtani, and $1,149,400 to the IRS.

As well as the millions siphoned out of Ohtani's account to pay off gambling debt, Mizuhara also bought $325,000 worth of baseball cards on eBay and other online resellers in order to flip them and profit himself. In September 2023, Ohtani agreed to pay for Mizuhara's $60,000 dental work and provided him with a check. Instead, according to prosecutors, Mizuhara paid the bill with Ohtani's debit card and deposited the check into his personal account.

Mizuhara also admitted to falsely reporting his taxable income on his IRS tax returns in 2022, resulting in the tax fraud charge. According to the plea deal, Mizuhara falsely claimed he was single when he was in fact married and failed to report additional income of $4,100,000 that year.

Not a good day to be an ippei-stan

In September 2023, Ohtani agreed to pay for Mizuhara's $60,000 dental work and provided him with a check.

POV scant minutes after you took the over AND the spread:

https://streamable.com/jnpw0y

#freeippei

First walk-off hit as a Dodger yesterday ... and his first walk-off in four years? I know the Angels were a bad team when he played there (if you're not winning, you're not getting walk-off hits) but that's still a surprising non-stat.

Not sure if this was noted in the New Yorker thread:

https://i.postimg.cc/2S7VvbLc/shohei.jpg

(Nothing inside that I can see.)

cmon whaaat

The worst part is, he doesn't even look anything like that

Pure disrespect for his running game

cmon whaaat

You disapprove? A Pinterest page suggests they've done around 25 baseball covers, most of a general nature. Seems like quite an honour--artists do mess around with details. All that's missing is a Roger Angell piece inside.

Well it suggests he bets on games, which seems borderline libellous

Oh, god, I totally missed that!

I guess you could be charitable and take that as "makes a lot of money"...but you're almost certainly right.

(If they ever got sued, I bet that'd be their defense, though. "Gambling? How so...")

took that as pocket ripe for picking/his focus is on the game

That's a nice interpretation. I say we go with that

hmm maybe

(I didn't see it as particularly libellous, more an illustration on how shohei's game and the fat stacks of cash surrounding that game are insepperable; ippei-gate just being one product of that)

But Bulb's phrasing for simple and pointed.

I honestly just thought it was a cute New Yorker cover on how he is well paid. Never thought of the others but now it's ambiguous.

Shohei, be careful of your money!

I thought it was a comment on his un-deferred salary (pocket-change) because he is anti-tax.

#freeippei

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-22/dodgers-star-shohei-ohtani-buys-la-canada-flintridge-mansion-for-7-85-million

I think he's making more than 2 million a year

more pics here https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/shohei-ohtani-buys-southern-california-mansion/

i feel like it's surprisingly modest?