He’ll just have to be content with being a more accurate comparison to Babe Ruth I guess.
― barry sito (gyac), Friday, 30 September 2022 07:49 (one year ago) link
Clemenza's a fan! (Say that in a Bob Dole voice.) My objection--still is--was more to mlb.com giving him screaming headlines every time he picked up a fork--specifically for accomplishments that weren't especially significant once you have already established he's a two-way player and will do a variety of things that are a by-product of that.
OHTANI CHARTS NEW TERRITORY!!! And then you'd read on to find out he was the first player to hit a double and strike out the side in the same game since x (almost always Ruth).
Seeing him pitch against the Jays this summer helped open my eyes--love his motion. And he's going be on the shortlist of greatest seasons ever by an MVP runner-up, I assume.
― clemenza, Friday, 30 September 2022 12:51 (one year ago) link
he needed 9 innings to qualify for the ERA title (apparently would have been the first player to ever qualify both as a pitcher and a hitter?) and pitched 8…
― k3vin k., Friday, 30 September 2022 13:10 (one year ago) link
Two way players being so common these days ofc
― barry sito (gyac), Friday, 30 September 2022 13:49 (one year ago) link
My objection--still is--was more to ilxor.com giving him screaming headlines every time he picked up a fork--specifically for accomplishments that weren't especially significant once you have already established he's a two-way player guy who hits runs and will occasionally hit runs do a variety of things that are a by-product of that.This is obvs not entirely serious… but I don’t get how the guy doing shit that is extraordinary is the one overhyped.
― barry sito (gyac), Friday, 30 September 2022 14:04 (one year ago) link
Because they were hyping things that weren't always extraordinary. Some of the things they were hyping were bound to happen the second his name was penciled into the lineup. Quirk of mine--really not a big deal.
― clemenza, Friday, 30 September 2022 14:25 (one year ago) link
A perfect example is the one I posted earlier in this thread:
"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."
That was a headline story. He's the starting pitcher that day, and he's batting near the top of the order, as you would expect. The game hasn't started yet.
― clemenza, Friday, 30 September 2022 14:29 (one year ago) link
BtwOHTANI CHARTS NEW TERRITORY!!! And then you'd read on to find out he was the first player to hit a double and strike out the side in the same game since x (almost always Ruth).I don’t think it’s unreasonable to hold this against him given the majority of people who saw Babe Ruth play are now dead. We are either more than a century or getting on from some of these feats!
― barry sito (gyac), Friday, 30 September 2022 15:01 (one year ago) link
reasonable, not unreasonable
― barry sito (gyac), Friday, 30 September 2022 15:09 (one year ago) link
I get what you're saying, but I don't think you get what I'm saying. In the headline I cited, the feat is that he's been penciled into the lineup. He hasn't actually done anything yet.
― clemenza, Friday, 30 September 2022 18:40 (one year ago) link
Our man has apparently signed a 1 year 30m deal a
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Saturday, 1 October 2022 20:56 (one year ago) link
Pitched another great game. If they gave him the MVP, I'd be surprised and it wouldn't be my vote, but I wouldn't argue against it very strenuously.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 23:54 (one year ago) link
2023 ZiPS are out for the angels:
https://i.imgur.com/W4gn6pI.png
Trout's #1 comp is Mickey Mantle!Ohtani's #1 pitching comp is Roger Clemens O_O
(Ohtani's #1 batting comp is Earl Torgeson, who i am much less familiar with)
― Karl Malone, Tuesday, 3 January 2023 16:38 (one year ago) link
Relatable
ファスナーに嫌われる😂 pic.twitter.com/Q8Lyz9e31Q— splendid (@mintlibido) April 17, 2023
― Everybody's gonna get what they got coming (gyac), Monday, 17 April 2023 16:19 (one year ago) link
lol extremely
hitting and pitching today, not so much
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 17 April 2023 16:56 (one year ago) link
Zip’s a pain but fuck the rain
― Everybody's gonna get what they got coming (gyac), Monday, 17 April 2023 17:12 (one year ago) link
3 IP with 8ks
2 for 2 at the plate
― omar little, Thursday, 4 May 2023 00:53 (one year ago) link
Insane.
That 3rd inning was hard to watch though. Had to switch to the O’s game. Glad he was able to come back and give a couple more innings.
Very strange how wild he has been this year. Almost like no one knows what he is throwing, shohei, catcher, umpire, batter, both teams, viewers. It’s all just chance coming out of his hand. Very effective tho
― hrep (H.P), Thursday, 4 May 2023 03:06 (one year ago) link
Fangraphs piece about his recent difficulties on the mound.I wonder also if the current league wide popularity of sweepers is contributing to people hitting his better, alongside his shaky command. I’ve only seen him pitch a couple of times this season and the first time he was godlike and the second his command was wild and he looked like a completely different player. Hope he can iron it out. That ratio of offspeeds to fastballs is puzzling.
― Everybody's gonna get what they got coming (gyac), Saturday, 20 May 2023 16:12 (one year ago) link
Patrick Sandoval just posted this photo of Shohei Ohtani eating Funyuns 😭 pic.twitter.com/jf7i12zX9e— MLB Life (@MLBLife) May 23, 2023
― Everybody's gonna get what they got coming (gyac), Tuesday, 23 May 2023 19:29 (one year ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxnvjXRWAAAQOdu.jpg
― clemenza, Saturday, 3 June 2023 03:36 (one year ago) link
Two Angels just hangin
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 3 June 2023 08:48 (one year ago) link
My new future hobby: three-degrees-of photo triptychs.
https://phildellio.tripod.com/babetedreggiesho.jpg
― clemenza, Saturday, 3 June 2023 14:34 (one year ago) link
Love it.
― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 3 June 2023 16:03 (one year ago) link
1W-2L in his last 7 starts...
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 10 June 2023 03:36 (one year ago) link
he's absolutely going off.
pulled this quote from a news story KM posted years ago on the other Ohtani thread:
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.
really underselling him in retrospect!
― omar little, Friday, 16 June 2023 15:59 (eleven months ago) link
I like every time I watch an Angels game at home and you see the stadium absolutely plastered with ads for Japan’s top cat food and the like.
― TY FRANCE HATES TEXAS CONFIRMED (gyac), Friday, 16 June 2023 16:03 (eleven months ago) link
i watched him cover 1b on that jared walsh diving catch yesterday and watching him run ro cover as a pitcher is insane.
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Friday, 16 June 2023 17:39 (eleven months ago) link
Don’t pitchers sometimes have to cover the base depending on the play?
― TY FRANCE HATES TEXAS CONFIRMED (gyac), Friday, 16 June 2023 18:00 (eleven months ago) link
Lol this guy sucks
Jon Heyman briefly spoke with Arte Moreno at this week’s MLB owners’ meetings, and asked him about trading Ohtani:“We want to win, and it’s nice to have him in the lineup.”https://t.co/NffpqJhRPG pic.twitter.com/4k6W7ntjr4— Beyond The Halo (@BeyondTheHalo) June 16, 2023
― TY FRANCE HATES TEXAS CONFIRMED (gyac), Friday, 16 June 2023 18:41 (eleven months ago) link
― TY FRANCE HATES TEXAS CONFIRMED (gyac), Friday, June 16, 2023 2:00 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
No i mean he is absurdly fast. pitchers on the whole are... not
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Friday, 16 June 2023 19:42 (eleven months ago) link
Oh ok, it might be skewed in my mind cos I’ve watched a ton of Tim Lincecum games & I’ve seen him do that a few times.
― TY FRANCE HATES TEXAS CONFIRMED (gyac), Friday, 16 June 2023 20:02 (eleven months ago) link
He's so friendly about it too
The Friendliest Out. pic.twitter.com/SFzkrTq1dY— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 3, 2023
― felicity, Friday, 16 June 2023 20:35 (eleven months ago) link
Even with Franco and Semien doing what they're doing, feels like he's starting to lap the field for MVP.
― clemenza, Sunday, 18 June 2023 02:28 (eleven months ago) link
!
― mookieproof, Sunday, 18 June 2023 02:32 (eleven months ago) link
Another HR, up to 24.
― clemenza, Sunday, 18 June 2023 19:42 (eleven months ago) link
Seems like an ok player
― half the population ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (gyac), Sunday, 18 June 2023 20:12 (eleven months ago) link
casual 0.4 WAR pitching 0.4 WAR hitting day
he would now be leading the AL in fWAR even without pitching.................as a fulltime DH
not going to say what else i'm thinking for fear of jinxes
― ✖, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 04:27 (eleven months ago) link
god this is so crazy, like imagine a QB throwing 60 TDs every year while also giving up the fewest yards per attempt on defense as a safety and picking off 8 passes a year
― frogbs, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 04:32 (eleven months ago) link
and honestly he is clearly underrated as a hitter by fangraphs WAR because of their DH penalty, which i think has merit when applied to guys who aren't good enough to get on the field as defenders. but that's not why he DHs. over a full season he's prob at least a full win better than what they say
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 28 June 2023 05:46 (eleven months ago) link
the DH penalty thing still warps my brain a little, I reached out to sean forman a couple of years ago with this same question and he explained that because he’s replacing a DH in the lineup rather than a pitcher, he gets the DH replacement adjustment. but I do feel like having him do both roles has adds value to their roster in other ways that WAR doesn’t capture. I feel similarly about utility players like kris bryant back when he was good
― k3vin k., Wednesday, 28 June 2023 15:32 (eleven months ago) link
he frees up a roster spot, one would think that should give him a bonus
― frogbs, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 15:45 (eleven months ago) link
i understand why they give him the DH replacement since he is playing DH, but the point of it is to penalize hitters who don’t have the ability to play the field, and we know that isn’t the case with ohtani. i’m sure it wouldn’t be that difficult to calculate his hitting WAR as if he was a league average corner OF but that math is beyond me. it would prob be a more accurate reflection of who he is as a player tho, even if it wouldn’t capture what he literally did (or didn’t do) on the field
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 28 June 2023 15:56 (eleven months ago) link
i mean he's a HOF-level talent at two positions, not Darvish meets Yelich but rather Verlander meets Judge, and the DH penalty is something i had trouble with when it came to normal extremely good DHs like Nelson Cruz or Ortiz. my son asked me if he was "better than Mike Trout" and i said he is now but also prob better than Trout ever was in overall value too. unreal that the angels are wasting both of those guys of course but that's been said a million times before.
― omar little, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 16:58 (eleven months ago) link
they may actually make at least the wild card this year but that’s far from a given, they’re in a dogfight with a half dozen teams and their roster is in disrepair as per usual… brandon drury and moustakas hitting 3rd & 4th for them last night. thankfully i don’t think he’s going to re-sign w/ them
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 28 June 2023 17:12 (eleven months ago) link
Ohtani would def be MVP at this point, if he can drag that roster to the playoffs it would be unanimous. it might require a little more help, i guess Trout could improve a bit more the rest of the way. which isn't to say he's been bad, he's on pace for 6 bWAR or something. Ohtani is on pace for over 12 of course.
― omar little, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 17:29 (eleven months ago) link
i think he's a total runaway in the AL regardless of how the season goes. the only player who would maybe have a case over him is acuna
― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 28 June 2023 17:54 (eleven months ago) link
he's the best hitter in the AL and a top 10 pitcher. there is no way anyone is more valuable than him
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 18:10 (eleven months ago) link
Yeah unless he gets injured or goes like 0 for 7000 there is no other candidate. How could there be?
― half the population ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (gyac), Wednesday, 28 June 2023 18:15 (eleven months ago) link
there's no one else in the vicinity right now
― omar little, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 18:31 (eleven months ago) link