“He understands,’’ Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s interpreter, tells USA TODAY Sports. “He realizes how much attention he’s getting. That’s why they’re looking at the spring training stats.
“But it doesn’t bother him. He’s going to keep doing the same thing.
“Really, it is not bothering him.’’
Unless Ohtani is the best actor since Leonardo DiCaprio, the Angels are convinced he is unfazed. He looks the same on the mound whether he’s striking out D.J. LeMahieu on a 98-mph fastball or watching Nolan Arrenado homer over the left-field fence.
Even at the plate, where he puts on a daily show in batting practice with the most power on the team, he hasn’t broken a bat in frustration, let alone cursed in anger at any of his nine strikeouts.
“He’s not panicking, not at all,’’ Angels GM Billy Eppler says. “From a GM or a manager standpoint, that’s comforting.
“When your players are calm, you’re calm, too.’’
Says Angels hitting coach Eric Hinske: “I know the results aren’t there, and his timing is off, but the kid is super positive. He hasn’t lost any of that swag. Once the lights turn, and the third deck shows up, he should show what he’s all about.’’
Pitching coach Charles Nagy says: “He’s healthy, the ball is coming out of his hand just fine, and he hasn’t missed a turn. Look, I never had the best spring training either. I had my ass handed to me a lot. But I knew I’d be ready when the season starts, just like Shohei will.’’
Still, the Angels aren’t going to lie to you, there is concern. They see the long, slow swing with his hands high in the air, power pitchers who are dominating him, and those unsettling him with inside fastballs. They see the inconsistency of his breaking pitches while on the mound, noticing that when he gets into trouble, he tends to throw softer than harder as if he questions his arsenal.
As they remind themselves each morning in their staff meetings, it is only spring training. It’s the same spring training where 17 years ago Ichiro Suzuki was a struggling rookie hearing the same scouting criticism, and Seattle Mariners manager Lou Piniella questioning whether he would ever hit.The same spring training where the Milwaukee Brewers wondered if they should release Nori Aoki. The same spring where the Los Angeles Dodgers doubted whether Hideo Nomo could be successful at the big-league level.
Now, here we are again, playing meaningless exhibition games, and rival scouts are questioning Ohtani’s ability, wondering whether the Babe Ruth of Japan will become the Ryan Leaf of baseball, an all-time flop.
“There are always going to be doubters,’’ says agent Nez Balelo of Creative Artists Agency. “The head scratcher for me is the organizations and scouts that are doubting him now, that didn’t get him, are the same teams and scouts four months ago telling me he is the next chosen one."
The Angels still believe, saying they will back their own words with actions. Ohtani, 6-foot-4, 204 pounds, is remaining in the starting rotation, and will pitch once every six or seven days. He will available to be their starting DH three times a week, skipping the days before and after he pitches.
“It’s going to be a pretty crazy year for sure,’’ says Trout, the two-time MVP. “He just gives off these great vibes. I know it’s going to be tough on him doing both things, but I think he’s going to wow us.
“Really, I think he’ll wow everyone.’’
The warm-act may have been tough on the ears, and, of course, the eyes, but in a week, Shohei Time starts for real.
“This is everything I always wanted,’’ Ohtani says. “Hopefully, I can make people happy.’’
In six innings, Ohtani embodied all the pitching clichés. He changed speeds, from mid-70s curves to low-80s sliders to sinkers at 89 or 90 to a fastball that hit triple digits a couple of times. He commanded to both sides of the plate: Ohtani played keep-away from righties with his slider away, and came in on their hands with upper-90s heat with arm-side run. One of the four baserunners he allowed was Stephen Piscotty, who saw a 100 mph 1-2 heater on the very low inside corner of the zone—prime location for a hitter to turn on a ball and yank it into the seats to his pull side. Piscotty’s single was an opposite-field slice—a nice piece of hitting, but a defensive piece of hitting against a pitch in a location where normal fastballs get pulled for extra bases. Against lefties, Ohtani faded the four-seamer on the outer half, or would bring the same pitch inside under their hands.
Marty’s Musings: week one, the Shohei Ohtani show
The rookie slugger / ace made his mark in his first week in the Bigs.
3 - Home runs last week for ‘Shohei Ohtani the batter’ who had a great week DHing for the Angels. On Tuesday night he went 3-for-4, hitting his first-ever Major League home run, driving in three runs. Wednesday he went 2-for-5, with another home run, and Friday he went 1-for-four, with yet another home run, a most impressive 450 foot blast (with an exit velocity of 112.3 MPH to boot!). This however, was the secondary story when compared to ‘Shohei Ohtani the pitcher’.
27 - Consecutive batters retired over two starts by Shohei Ohtani. The story of the weekend was his six and a third perfect innings against Oakland on Sunday that got all of baseball buzzing. The start prior, also against the Athletics, Ohtani retired nine batters in a row. His starts are quickly becoming the most interesting in baseball.
Shohei Ohtani Is Very Clearly Not From This Planet
Here is the part where we’re supposed to remember that 19 plate appearances is nothing but a slight shuffle down the long road one has to walk before proving anything about what kind of hitter they are, and that the Oakland A’s are not very good.
And yet this feels like a rare occasion in which cries of “small sample size!” truly do not matter. The point isn’t that Ohtani has a losing battle with regression ahead of him—he almost certainly does—but that he is this, right now, right in front of our very eyes. It’s 2018 and the current most dominant pitcher in baseball is also rocking 449-foot homers to straightaway center. It’s 2018 and Angels fans can turn on the TV one day to watch their rookie pitcher throw like peak Roger Clemens, and then turn it on a day or two later to watch the same player hit balls like Bryce Harper.
It’s not easy to wrap your head around something like this, mostly because of all the possibilities it opens up. Yes, Ohtani will find his struggles, but what if... what if... he mostly keeps doing this? What if he wins the Cy Young award then becomes the Rookie of the Year and hits 35 homers? What if he sets the single-season WAR record? What if he eventually becomes the most expensive free agent in baseball history? What if every dominant high school pitching prospect who is also a cleanup hitter starts refusing to put the bat down once the time comes? Will Ohtani become the planet’s new God King?
A week ago, these would have been stupid questions to ask. But after just two starts and 19 plate appearances, they seem a lot less stupid. That’s the power of Shohei Ohtani, and the reason why you should not, under any circumstances, take your eyes off him.
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