The future of Shohei Ohtani

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

I don't think one has to speak English to be a leader, personal energy and field performance speaks to core values as a human and ball player.

I always thought all that locker room stuff was overblown anyhow. You don't win games in the locker room. Leadership is by example on the field.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

I always thought all that locker room stuff was overblown anyhow. You don't win games in the locker room. Leadership is by example on the field.

Locker room negativity can definitely have an affect, ala Barry Bonds/Jeff Kent, Otahni brings more to the plate than that.

[frankbmd]

I wonder what Sadaharu Oh (he is still alive) thinks of Shohei Ohtani.

No one knows what Oh would have accomplished if he had come to major league baseball, but he averaged nearly 40 home runs a year for 22 years in Japan.
Oh never won a NPB game or even pitched in one. Oh walked a lot and Shohei is starting to see his walks increase as well. Comparing Oh to Ruth as a slugger is a speculative task. Not many would give the GOAT nod to Oh though.

If the Angels wanted to improve Shohei's offensive counting stats, they should have picked up Gehrig before the trading deadline to bat behind him. Of course a healthy and younger Trout might help in that regard, but Trout and Gehrig are post-prime and post-mortem at this point.

Shohei's future career in baseball is unknown, but it will be interesting to see what happens in the next 10 years. Now we can only guess and not consider our (judge)ments too seriously.

Trivia: Until I checked Oh's stats this morning I didn't realize the Sadaharu's mother was Japanese and his father was Chinese. In China he is known as
Wang Chen-chih. OH MY!

Trivia: Oh was the pitching ace of his high school team as though, but never pitched in the NPB.

Trivia: Oh competed in a home run derby in Japan with Hank Aaron, that Hank won 10-9.

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

I wonder what Sadaharu Oh (he is still alive) thinks of Shohei Ohtani.

No one knows what Oh would have accomplished if he had come to major league baseball, but he averaged nearly 40 home runs a year for 22 years in Japan.

Oh was interviewed in Japanese media during the WBC about Ohtani and made some generic compliments about his performance. Oh is a front office executive for the Hawks (whom he used to manage), who were rivals of Ohtani's team (Fighters) so they've never actually met.

Back in the early days of NPB just before Oh came up it wasn't uncommon for players in Japan to do what Ohtani is doing - be both a star pitcher and star batter.

The guy who had the single season hit record in NPB before Ichiro broke it (Fumio Fujimura) also had a 34-11 career record with a 2.43 ERA on the mound.

Michio Nishizawa, who led the league in batting average and RBIs in 1952 also had 60 career wins on the mound (though playing for the Dragons he had a losing record).

There are a few other HOFers with similar hitting/pitching resumes. By the time Oh came up in 1959 it was a lot rarer and eventually died out until Ohtani came along.