Was Shohei Ohtani born or built
As I was reading the Dylan Hernandez piece on Shohei Ohtani the thought came to me that if I was going to build a baseball player, Ohtani-San would be what I’d hope to replicate.
He throws 100 MPH, he can hit a baseball 500 feet, and now I just read he’s as fast as Billy Hamilton.
He can run too. Scouts have timed Ohtani in as few as 3.8 seconds from the batter’s box to first base. That’s as quick as Billy Hamilton and Dee Gordon, two of the fastest players in the majors.
Come on, this sounds a little too much for me, so put me in the I’ll believe when I see it.
And I hope to see it in Los Angeles.
Some think the Dodgers might be his future destination but…
Rival organizations view the Dodgers and New York Yankees as the most likely destinations for Ohtani because they are perennial playoff contenders that have extensive histories with Japanese players. But Sasaki didn’t sound convinced, noting that Ohtani chose to play for his local high school instead of a national powerhouse.
The coach recalled what a Fighters executive told Ohtani when he was a high school senior deciding between moving to the United States as a pitcher or remaining in Japan as a two-way player: “Let’s be pioneers and do something no one has ever done before.”
The Dodgers can’t pay him much if he comes over in 2018 but he doesn’t seem as concerned with money as with competition. Ohtani could own this town in ways that Nomo/Kuroda/Darvish never could.
Whoever signs him, I hope they give him a real shot at being a two-way player.
Other pieces on Ohtani:
Whitney McIntosh from SBNation
Whatever team he ends up with, and whatever they decide on doing with his multiple talents, everybody should be looking forward to his hitting and how fun it will be to have it the league just as much as they are looking forward to his pitching prowess.
Shohei Ohtani will get to pick which major league team he plays for in 2018, and all it cost him is a hundred million dollars or two. He has leverage, and he has certainly paid a premium for it. I’m not saying that he can make Theo Epstein bark like a dog if he wants to, but he can probably make Theo Epstein bark like a dog if he wants to.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
- Tagged: Shohei Ohtani
Dodgers, Yesterday and Today 