shohei ohtani alert

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.

well it's never been done before!

What a joy this guy is

he's on pace to make the top 10 single season WAR list, which is basically all guys like Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds, plus those insane Yaz & Hornsby seasons

there are a bunch of guys having monster seasons and he’s 2 wins ahead of them

even though ppl, like, intuitively understand this, it's still an under discussed story that the angels have had one of the greatest baseball players in 100+ years on their team for a decade, and now have an international superstar putting up one of the greatest seasons in 100+ years... and still LITERALLY CANNOT MAKE THE PLAYOFFS MORE THAN ONE TIME!!! you can make a very reasonable argument that this fact alone has contributed to baseball's decline as a national interest and cultural phenomenon. you could also make a very reasonable argument that it's in the best interest of baseball to forcibly remove arte moreno as owner and find someone who could maybe run a franchise in LA w/ 2 of the best players in baseball and get them into the playoffs, like, one time before the world implodes. it's not asking for much!

its a uniquely frustrating scenario...idk if the Angels ownership/management just sucks but I can't really point to a single thing they've done over the last decade that's worked, outside of maybe the trade for Andrelton Simmons. they also happened to grab those two players during the years where they knew Pujols was gonna be an albatross - they signed him knowing full well that they were likely going to be punting the last 4-5 years. they've also had a lot of bad luck - Trout's hurt, Rendon's hurt, they just cannot seem to develop a decent pitcher who doesn't overdose on fentanyl. its a shitty situation and I agree its bad for the game.

I know his HR is the big story, but (from Posnanski):

In case you haven’t been staying up for West Coast games, Shohei Ohtani is hitting .364/.430/.677 with 11 doubles in 25 games. As great as Ohtani has been, he’s never been much of a doubles hitter; his career high in doubles was 30 in 2022.

As longtime readers know, I spent a lot of time rooting for someone to hit 60 doubles in a season. It has not happened since 1936. Freddie Freeman ALMOST did it last year (he finished with 59), and Nick Castellanos ALMOST did it in 2019 (he finished with 58), so the dream goes on.

If Shohei Ohtani is the guy who challenges for 60 doubles this year, I might just explode in happiness.

Yeah, he's hitting 99% of his balls to right field (Source: eye test) and if they're a little further to the right than to the middle of right field, they end up doubles. Happens a lot.

make it 13 doubles in 26

On pace for 81. Easy.

Wtf 14 in 26. He gets a double in the 8th, and the 9th!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLci2DdaIAAZk8z?format=jpg&name=small

https://cdn8.openculture.com/2017/08/20195102/soviet-censorship-naval-commissar-vanishes.jpg

Stalin comparison is lol but also, that’s the worst Ohtani drawing! Strange when the visual is such a huge part of his appeal.

Ohtani’s on pace for 230 hits #sss

Shohei Ohtani was booed before and after his 1st AB at Rogers Centre. The fans acted like jilted lovers, seeing Ohtani in #Dodgers blue. After he responded w/ a HR, his teammates greeted him in the dugout with more boos. "He got a big kick out of that.”https://t.co/9WOdwssL3X

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) April 27, 2024

They're still mad about the #ohtaniplane

I just love the idea of the dugout booing ohtani after all of his hits. "Booooooo stop making us look bad!"

dodgers are in pittsburgh the first week of june; hope the fans boo him for not signing with the pirates

Lol

changed my DN

brilliant, kudos

pretty good

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.