It’s Shotime!

In case you didn’t know, Japanese two-way baseball athlete Shohei Ohtani is easily the biggest story in all of sports right now. He pitches and bats, and does both exceptionally well, drawing comparisons to the legendary Babe Ruth. Ohtani, 23, is baseball’s number one prospect, and for his first week, he has definitely lived up to that hype.

Ohtani was previously a member of the Nippon Ham Fighters, a club in the Japanese Pacific League. He first showed the world his talent by participating in the world baseball classic, often facing Major League hitters and pitchers. His team treasured him for the first five years of his career, developing him into one the best pitchers and hitters in Asia. American scouts certainly noticed him and planned to bring him to the majors when he was eligible.

There were lots of obstacles between Ohtani’s Trans-Pacific signing. He could personally deny the option to play in America, the Ham Fighters could refuse, injuries could tackle him, and there was a restriction of international signings of young players. Aside from money, most importantly, what if he did not hold up against the highest level of baseball? There were only a few teams meeting the expectations to sign Ohtani. The rich Yankees were once the favorite to land him, but Ohtani claimed that he is more interested in playing on the West coast. As a result, the LA Angels impressed him and offered him a contract.

Japanese imports are typically a success in Major League Baseball. Ichiro Suzuki is a living legend and future Hall of Fame lock, tallying over 4500 hits throughout his professional career. Ichiro holds the single-season record for hits, and is still competing at age 44. Masahiro Tanaka and Yu Darvish are both pitching aces and all-stars in the MLB, and they’ve dominated American baseball in their first years, posting excellent numbers.

Spring training was a disaster for the young star. He froze as a hitter and was shaken up as a pitcher. The entire spring, he posted a miserable 0.347 OPS at the plate (as a reference the worst offensive team of 2017 averaged a 0.692 OPS, an MVP caliber player usually posts an OPS above .900). On the mound, he recorded 27.00 ERA. The 2017 MLB average was 4.36 (the lower the better), and that was the highest in a decade. Jeff Passan, a respected baseball analyst from Yahoo sports, stated that Ohtani batted like a high school hitter, and multiple scouts lined up stating that Ohtani will need at least a year of minor league experience in order to survive the majors.

However, the Angels chose to trust the process and put him in the lineup on opening day. They even lowered down the right outfield, hoping Ohtani would benefit and hit more home runs. Ohtani was assigned the designated hitter role and did better than expected. On the first official MLB pitch he saw, Ohtani ripped the ball to right field for a base hit. He finished the day 1 for 5. April 1st was his pitching debut. Ohtani surrendered a three-run home run early in the second inning, yet he bounced back and pitched 4 more scoreless innings without even allowing a hit. His fastball velocity was clocked at 100 mph at times! Days later, Ohtani made his first appearance at Angel Stadium. His home debut made all the haters shut up; he hit a three-run shot into the stands during his first plate appearance and finished with 3 hits. The second day, he hit another home run, this time off Cy Young award winner (best pitcher) Corey Kluber. Friday, April 6th was his fourth batting appearance, and not so surprising anymore, he hit another long ball, so he homered in three consecutive games. On April 8th, he returned to pitching again, and this time he was untouchable. Ohtani retired 19 straight batters before allowing a hit. According to professional analysts, he’s pitched the best game by far in the season. As a decoration to that stellar performance, he struck out 12 batters. The MLB recognized Shohei Ohtani’s amazing debut week and announced that he was the AL player of the week.

Shohei Ohtani’s first at-bat at Angel Stadium.

Gone.

Goosebumps. pic.twitter.com/mU901OKkKZ

— MLB (@MLB) April 4, 2018

Let’s see some more advanced statistics proving his stardom (courtesy of the Washington Post).

• Ohtani became the 14th major leaguer with at least 12 strikeouts in one of his first two starts, and the first since the Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg in 2012.
• His game score of 90 is tied for seventh-highest for a pitcher in his second MLB start.
• Ohtani’s 18 strikeouts are tied for the most by an Angel in his first two starts.
• His 54.5 percent whiff rate (the number of misses on total swings by opposing batters) Sunday was the fifth-highest in a game since Statcast began tracking such information in 2015.
• Another stat worth mentioning, he tallied 1.0 WAR (wins above replacement, so he on his own gave his team a win statistic-wise)
• Ohtani is now the favorite for the MVP award according to Bleacher Report

His teammates and fellow players also praised his performance. Infielder Zack Cozart said that Ohtani has “a rare talent that’s great to watch”, and catcher Martin Maldonado said that “[Ohtani’s] never out of place.” Because he is playing with Mike Trout, the best position player in the world, and Andrelton Simmons, a defensive magician, there is so much more to hype about in the new season for the Los Angeles Angels.