MLB 2018 regular season thread

The Fangraphs piece is interesting because it indicates that pitchers are trying to pitch Ohtani a particular way. Perhaps they are just missing right now. Perhaps he has hammered some mistakes over 19 plate appearances in the major leagues. As they continue to adjust and potentially execute, it's certainly possible that we will see that he is not major league-ready as a hitter.

 

From Passan himself:
The other faux pas was the headline: “The verdict is in on Shohei Ohtani’s bat and it’s not good.” If I replace “verdict” with “early report,” it sounds plenty more reasonable. Still wrong, but at least more fair.

 

This is the headline:

The verdict is in on Shohei Ohtani's bat and it's not good

He has batted 19 times. There is no 19-PA sample in baseball history that proves whether a hitter is or is not a productive major league hitter, over the long run.

 

What part of "wrong" do you not understand?

 

Even Passan admits it was wrong, but Dickie can't ever just say he got something wrong, so we get yet another idiotic tangent on a baseball thread, complete with JC using it as an excuse to take a jab at me.

 

He has batted 19 times. It is well within the range of possible outcomes that he will prove to not be a good major league hitter.

 

Except for his history in Japan. His exit velocity here. His power here.

None of it is "not good". None of it.

 

Even though Shohei Ohtani has hardly played, and even though Ohtani will develop over time, he’s been attacked extremely inside. More, I can say, than any other hitter. Have you ever wondered how many games it might take in the regular season before a hitter has a scouting report slapped on him? In Ohtani’s case, the answer is apparently zero.

 

"He’s not going to be ready as either a pitcher or hitter when the season starts."

 

He struck out 25 to 36 percent of the time in Japan the last three seasons.

That's "not good."

 

I'm not ready to concede that that's not true. I'm certainly not ready to concede that Passan's headline - that he's "not good" as an MLB hitter - has been proven wrong, let alone "spectacularly wrong."

 

He's the leading vote-getter for the ASG.