Shohei Ohtani

[FondrenRoad 4378]

2 hours ago, thrillhammer said:

looks much better as a hitter than a pitcher.  we'll see what they do with him if his era keeps climbing like it has been.

I don't know about that.  He was throwing 100 mph yesterday.  Looked a hell of a lot better than Joe Smith.

[thrillhammer 683]

velocity ain't everything.  his era is around 4.55 now and getting higher.  he is also not going many innings in his last couple of starts.  bullpen is calling his name.

[Henry Hill 3156]

Check out the price one of his rookie auto cards is commanding: https://m.ebay.com/itm/2018-Bowman-Chrome-Shohei-Ohtani-Rookie-Atomic-Refractor-Autograph-38-100-Auto/222944590484?hash=item33e8887a94:g:XooAAOSw2q9a33M~

[huge 3793]

7 hours ago, thrillhammer said:

velocity ain't everything.  his era is around 4.55 now and getting higher.  he is also not going many innings in his last couple of starts.  bullpen is calling his name.

Not sure if serious 

[Blotto 23484]

2 hours ago, Henry Hill said:

Check out the price one of his rookie auto cards is commanding: https://m.ebay.com/itm/2018-Bowman-Chrome-Shohei-Ohtani-Rookie-Atomic-Refractor-Autograph-38-100-Auto/222944590484?hash=item33e8887a94:g:XooAAOSw2q9a33M~

A fool and his money are soon parted. 

[FartingMonk 3606]

10 hours ago, thrillhammer said:

velocity ain't everything.  his era is around 4.55 now and getting higher.  he is also not going many innings in his last couple of starts.  bullpen is calling his name.

yeah, Charlie Morton didn't last too many innings last start and gave up some runs too.  Let's send his ass to the bullpen.  You're a fucking moron.

[thrillhammer 683]

look, all i'm saying is it's way too early to be calling him the next babe ruth.  he's a great hitter, has a pure, powerful stroke, but he is not looking like a great pitcher. he's had 4 starts, gone 20 innings total, given up 3 hr's, has a 4.43 era.  he can throw hard, and has great SO/walk ratio.  a lot of those stats are what you look for in a reliever.  i'm sure there is absolutely no one in the clubhouse thinking about moving him there.  he's young and still learning, but if he can't go deeper into games then what you have is a pitcher who's secret of his success depends on the hitters not seeing him the second and third time around.  

[Goo Punch 4275]

It’s not even about his stats at this point as a pitcher. He’s been in the league all of 5 minutes and we’re using his stats to define him? How about a fastball that hits 101 with a devastating splitter in the low 90’s? The kid is built like Justin Verlander to boot. His upside as a hitter is good; his upside as a pitcher is great. Give him some time to adjust and some good coaching and he has every tool to be an ace pitcher in the MLB. His ceiling as a hitter isn’t nearly as high.

[Doc Holliday 199]

he ain't no brooks kieschnick

[Firemans4Horn 18034]

“If he isn’t pitching into the 8th inning and throwing 125 pitches by his 5th MLB start, move him to the bullpen”

-Nolan Ryan

[Fozzz 152]

I like his upside as a pitcher, but a 5.4% swinging strike rate on his 99+ fastball is pretty disappointing.  Question is whether he can command his better secondary offerings well enough to sustain reasonable swing %s.  

[txhorns 2409]

I haven't gotten to watch enough of him to comment on him specifically but most of the comments i see about his pitching are about how hard he throws.  Throwing hard doesn't mean shit.  Him hitting a 100 on the radar gun is not going to make him a good pitcher.  Hell I was hitting off guys throwing 98 in high school.  He needs to have movement on his pitches.  100 with movement is tough to hit.  The problem for him is that a pitchers stuff tends to flatten out when he gets tired.  Will his stuff flatten out more because he gets less rest than a typical pitcher?

[Trey3216 15343]

On 4/9/2018 at 11:34 AM, henrygandorf said:

unless he's a .330+ or 30+ homer type (which i don't think he is), he should just pitch.  there are plenty of guys who can go .270 / 21hr / 72rbi.  not many people can do what he can do on the mound.

that said, there have been other japanese pitchers who have been impressive out of the gate only to settle down afterwards.

regardless, it's good for the sport, and i look forward to heading south to watch angels-stros this summer with him on the mound.

IF he hits .270/21/72 playing 3 days/week and pitches like he's capable of, he'll be the League MVP

[FartingMonk 3606]

4 hours ago, thrillhammer said:

look, all i'm saying is it's way too early to be calling him the next babe ruth.  he's a great hitter, has a pure, powerful stroke, but he is not looking like a great pitcher. he's had 4 starts, gone 20 innings total, given up 3 hr's, has a 4.43 era.  he can throw hard, and has great SO/walk ratio.  a lot of those stats are what you look for in a reliever.  i'm sure there is absolutely no one in the clubhouse thinking about moving him there.  he's young and still learning, but if he can't go deeper into games then what you have is a pitcher who's secret of his success depends on the hitters not seeing him the second and third time around.  

Yeah good thing you aren't the Angels clubhouse people because you got this hotshot prospect who is 23 signed to a 2 year no money contract to you.  After 5 games and 5 months in the United States, you tell him he's not good enough to be a starting pitcher.  You're going to put him in the bullpen because he just doesn't have it.  Let's see what happens when it is time for him to sign his real contract next year.  

[pacman 7354]

Isn't he working with a blister right now, making his pitch control a little off?

Edited April 26, 2018 by pacman

[Henry Hill 3156]

4 hours ago, Fozzz said:

I like his upside as a pitcher, but a 5.4% swinging strike rate on his 99+ fastball is pretty disappointing.  Question is whether he can command his better secondary offerings well enough to sustain reasonable swing %s.  

This is a great point. His ability to complement his fastball will speak volumes for whether he can work late into a game. 

 

[elguapo 4586]

Ohtani is a rare talent, questions to me will be health and whether he has it mentally to be a dominant SP in the big leagues.

[henrygandorf 29189]

5 hours ago, Trey3216 said:

IF he hits .270/21/72 playing 3 days/week and pitches like he's capable of, he'll be the League MVP

those would be his stats if he got 500+ pa is what i'm saying.  and didn't pitch.  in my opinion, there are plenty of people who can do what he does as a full time hitter, which is why i think he should just pitch.

[Trey3216 15343]

8 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

those would be his stats if he got 500+ pa is what i'm saying.  and didn't pitch.  in my opinion, there are plenty of people who can do what he does as a full time hitter, which is why i think he should just pitch.

I hear ya.  I was saying if he hits .270/21/72 as a 2/3 time DH and wins 12-14 games, he's your AL MVP

[TheFlagship 432]

 

[Goo Punch 4275]

All 11 k’s from Shohei yesterday:

 

https://instagram.com/p/BivLrenAnrb/

 

[kingkoopa6 8344]

dude a fan favorite out here..

 

[Goo Punch 4275]

Logan Morrison called him the best player in baseball...which says more about LoMo than it does Shohei.

[FartingMonk 3606]

yeah, he needs to go to the bullpen.....

[EZ$ 2102]

On 4/26/2018 at 10:31 AM, txhorns said:

 Hell I was hitting off guys throwing 98 in high school.  

No, no you were not. 

[Goo Punch 4275]

6 hours ago, EZ$ said:

No, no you were not. 

Jesus, seriously. I was at Pflugerville during the Homer Bailey, Scott Kazmir, Brent Clevlen, Joey Guajardo, John Danks Jr era, and my friends’ younger brothers were playing when Jungmann was at Gtown, and not only were none of those guys touching 98 (maybe Homer), nobody was hitting that shit. So unless txhorns is Kelly Gruber, I’m not buying it.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Goo Punch

[Doc Holliday 199]

Verlander just showed everyone how to pitch him

 

Edited May 17, 2018 by Doc Holliday

[huge 3793]

someone post the gif of him almost breaking his own ankle pls

[huge 3793]

On 5/15/2018 at 4:59 AM, Goo Punch said:

Jesus, seriously. I was at Pflugerville during the Homer Bailey, Scott Kazmir, Brent Clevlen, Joey Guajardo, John Danks Jr era, and my friends’ younger brothers were playing when Jungmann was at Gtown, and not only were none of those guys touching 98 (maybe Homer), nobody was hitting that shit. So unless txhorns is Kelly Gruber, I’m not buying it.

I watched Ryan Rupe (Northbrook/aTm) throw 96-97 in high school. He was occasionally hit.  But generally when he threw strikes very few were hitting him.

[WBT 20559]

19 minutes ago, huge said:

someone post the gif of him almost breaking his own ankle pls

 

0-4 with 3 Ks against Verlander last night.  CB Bucknor said that wasn't a swing though.

Edited May 17, 2018 by WBT

[gsoda3 3245]

You need strong wrists to stop that swing.

[Huckleberry 32839]

I don't know about 98 but I know for a fact that we hit off of 95 against Bowie's early 90s studs. John Codrington was throwing gas and Eric French was in the low 90s. Tony Zamarippa was throwing low 90s but his fastball was straight as an arrow. The guy I actually found hardest to hit out of their staff after Codrington left was Cody Hays. He wasn't throwing above the mid-80s but he had movement and control. Of course that's just the way baseball is sometimes, you have an eye that works against certain pitchers. I loved hitting against Mario Ramos and he ended up being the best out of all those guys.

Edited May 17, 2018 by Huckleberry

[UT Lawnghorn 758]

On 4/26/2018 at 10:31 AM, txhorns said:

  Hell I was hitting off guys throwing 98 in high school.  

[Goo Punch 4275]

On 5/17/2018 at 12:50 PM, Huckleberry said:

I don't know about 98 but I know for a fact that we hit off of 95 against Bowie's early 90s studs. John Codrington was throwing gas and Eric French was in the low 90s. Tony Zamarippa was throwing low 90s but his fastball was straight as an arrow. The guy I actually found hardest to hit out of their staff after Codrington left was Cody Hays. He wasn't throwing above the mid-80s but he had movement and control. Of course that's just the way baseball is sometimes, you have an eye that works against certain pitchers. I loved hitting against Mario Ramos and he ended up being the best out of all those guys.

MR’s cousins grew up right across the street from me and weren’t half bad either. Marcus Ramos (maybe he was MR’s younger brother?) was going to be a great college pitcher at Rice IMO, but he tore his shoulder up in the spring of his senior year and never recovered.

[Goo Punch 4275]

Nice little Sunday for Shohei: 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 9 K, 1 BB and the W

 

 

[Seasick Sailor 3747]

Good luck:

 

[Rustic Horn 929]

 

[closetojumping 62507]

4 minutes ago, Rustic Horn said:

 

I know it really isn't, but didn't this seem inevitable all along for some reason? I clicked this thread thinking "I wonder if here's where it gets announced that he's getting Tommy John". I don't know why that was in my head about this guy. Good news for Houston though.

[WBT 20559]

It came out this offseason that he had some kind of UCL sprain before he was even posted. 

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2017/12/12/16770768/shohei-ohtani-injury-damaged-elbow-ligament-angels

I think it's inevitable that he'll get tommy john within the next 2 years but I've thought the same about tanaka since 2014 and he's still chugging along.

[Patrick Bateman 3910]

Unless your name is Tanaka, these PRP injections rarely work for that grade UCL sprain.  Delaying the inevitable TJ surgery but I understand the decision.  Whether he gets the surgery tomorrow or in a month, he's most likely missing the rest of the year and all of 2020, so why not take a low percentage shot he's an exception.  Sucks, but the Angels knew he had UCL damage when he came over.  Shitty for baseball though, he's a fun player...

[TonyTexas 10504]

I’m an Astro fan, and while it may help my team, I enjoy watching him play and he’s definitely been one of the best stories of the MLB season.

[Henry Hill 3156]

Report is out from Pedro Gomez this morning that he’s almost assuredly having TJ surgery and would be out until the 2020 season. Brutal.

[Johnny Sack 8397]

That sucks.  

Could he give up pitching and play the field or DH without undergoing TJ surgery?

[Pato del Muerto 52484]

Really, really feel bad for the angels, their fans, and their coach.  All torn up. 

[Rustic Horn 929]

😂

 

[Gil Bang 25907]

This motherfucker is the most exciting player to come along in decades. 

Throws 101, hits the ball a fucking mile, leads MLB in HRs...what a talent.  You guys with young kids, make sure to take them to the ballpark when the Angels come to town.  

[Scraps 13560]

I caught a foul ball last night that was last touched by Japanese Babe Ruth

Still the only foul I have gotten and wish i could have authenticated it.....Ohtani pitching. Only thing I got is a vid on youtube lol

[Beau Vine 54203]

 

[ztejas 43411]

On 5/17/2021 at 9:55 PM, Gil Bang said:

This motherfucker is the most exciting player to come along in decades. 

Throws 101, hits the ball a fucking mile, leads MLB in HRs...what a talent.  You guys with young kids, make sure to take them to the ballpark when the Angels come to town.  

He pitches innings and yaks big boy American dingers in the same games. Sometimes in the same inning.

Agreed. Holy shit he's a sensation. 

Edited May 21, 2021 by ztejas

[Gil Bang 25907]

Last night, he pitches 5 strong innings, strikes out 8, and jacks two doubles, after fouling a ball off his own knee.

He's just a bad motherfucker.  No two ways about it.