MLB 2018 regular season thread

He never defended the report. He is only interested in the conclusion of it and whether the first three weeks of the season can prove it right or wrong. The method behind the report is completely immaterial. It could have been based on the fact that Ohtani wears a particular brand of cleat. It wouldn't change Dick's argument one bit.

 

Goddammit. What the hell am I doing? Why am I making Dick's arguments for him against the one poster who will reach up from his own grave to post on his tombstone because he has to get the last word?

I'm the dumbest boy in school.

 

Not in this thread you're not.

 

Sure I am. Betting me here is like betting the field against a single golfer. You made a big bold sweeping final proclamation after 19 plate appearances. I argued that you can't make big bold sweeping final proclamations after 19 plate appearances, essentially.

I win. The narrow, cautious argument almost always wins.

 

Why won't anyone declare Baseball Prospectus wrong about Matt Davidson?

 

Apples and Elephants. Nobody said Matt Davidson isn't ready for the major leagues.

 

Third basemen with a .681 OPS are highly sought after.

 

But that was never the central thesis.

 

8 scouts, 100 years of scouting, all of them said Ohtani sucks and isn't ready.

Ohtani: 26 at-bats, 11 RBIs, .769 SLG% (highest in MLB), 2 starts, 3 earned runs in 13 innings pitched.

Therefore, Ohtani was READY for the major leagues.

Might he start to regress to some mean? Possibly.

But he was READY.

8 scouts, 100 years of scouting, all of them said Ohtani sucks and isn't ready.

 

Half dozen of one, six of the other.

 

Poin declared them, definitively, proven spectacularly wrong after 19 plate appearances.

They were not.

What he does in plate appearances 20 through 10,000+ are 100 percent immaterial to this debate.

 

This wasn't some guy picked up in the Rule 5 draft, or a 23rd round draft pick, or some reach of a first-round pick from a high school in Nebraska. This was a world class talent coveted by all 30 major league teams. For these writers and these scouts to make a definitive conclusion that he was not major league worthy based on some spring training games was a major reach on their part and very stupid to do. They were wrong and Pass an knew that he is wrong and that's why he has issued his mea culpa column so early. He doesn't want the stench that Mike Lombardi has had to live with for the last 9 months when he made a spectacular early wrong opinion about Doug Pederson.