I just watched another pitching gem from Japan's two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani, and now, I just have one question: where are the haters now!?
Ohtani's record improves to 4-1, with a 3.35 ERA. He kept things tight today, allowing only two runs against a Tampa Bay offense that had bamboozled the Los Angeles Angels throughout the series.
While the common criticism against him is "small sample size," I have to say, when are we going to start giving credit where credit is due?
Baseball critics and analysts are a crazy bunch. During spring training, several scouts and pundits stated that Ohtani needs to go down to the minor leagues. Check out this silly report:
Single-A?
I mean, honestly, who the hell is this scout, and why the hell does he have a job in MLB?
In any profession, you're allowed some whoppers, but damn! This is an almost untenable mistake. If the scout had his way, he'd put one of the greatest baseball talents in the world toiling in obscurity. Like I said, an unforgivably stupid mistake.
Yet all baseball scouts...and I do mean ALL...were hailing Ohtani as the next big sensation, that he had legitimate hitting power as well as a 100+ mph fastball...something that always translates.
Now, we've seen several games.
How are the results? Let's see...
Over 7 games pitched, he has 52 strikeouts, including 9 in today's game, and 11 in his prior start.
In 84 at-bats, he has 27 hits, 6 of which are homers. Also, among his hits, over 44% are extra-base hits. In other words, he's not just hitting for hitting's sake...Ohtani delivers quality at-bats.
After a century, we're finally seeing a legitimate two-way player.