December 3, 2017

Red Sox And Yankees Are Both Out Of The Competition For Shohei Ohtani

The Red Sox and Yankees were not among the teams invited to make an in-person presentation to Shohei Ohtani, the 23-year-old pitching and slugging star of Japan.

Ohtani may be looking at smaller markets and/or teams on the west coast. Nine teams will make presentations, including the Giants and Mariners.

In 2016, Ohtani batted .322 with 22 home runs while posting a 1.86 ERA in 140 innings. He has been clocked running to first base in 3.8 seconds, which would make him one of the fastest players in the majors. He was hampered by an ankle injury and played in only 65 games last year.

Ohtani has until 11:59 p.m. EST December 22 to agree to a contract with a major league team.


Here is a nice headline:
Report: Marlins Laid Off A Hospitalized Scout Who Was Waiting For A Kidney Transplant After Colon Cancer Surgery
A commenter: "[Dan] Le Batard said something this morning that stuck with me: We're fast approaching a point where Alex Rodriguez will be more well liked than Derek Jeter. Who saw that coming?"

6 comments:

Jere said...

In a similar article about Jeter, Joel Sherman said that his source asked him to "go easy" on Jeter when writing it. Sherman: "I will write here what I told him: He isn't NYY SS anymore." Fucking NY reporter admits to going easy on Jeter his entire career until now!

allan said...

Deadspin comments:

VivaEvolucion: "But Jeter did arrange for one of his patented 'morning after' gift bags to be left at his hospital bedside."

Fowl6460: "He should, because he fucked this guy."

FenFan said...

To the Angels he goes...

allan said...

Yep. Grant Brisbee thinks (correctly) that the Angels will be fun to watch. I'm excited to see this kid. What if he really can pitch and hit in MLB??

Red Sox at Angels, April 17-18-19! Games 17-19 of the season. ... Also: At Fenway June 26-28.

allan said...

Jayson Stark, Facebook (today):

If Shohei Otani starts 15+ games in the field & 15+ on the mound next year, it would be just the 5th time since 1900 that's been done:
Ray Caldwell 1918 (21 as P, 16 OF)
Babe Ruth 1918 (19 P, 57 OF)
Babe Ruth 1919 (15 P, 106 OF)
Johnny Cooney 1924 (19 P, 16 OF)

***

David Cho said...

When the headline read, "Otani to the Los Angeles...," my heart raced. Oh shit, we got him........oh fck.

I think it was the best possible outcome for the Dodgers. He is in AL, not NL, and he is not signing with the Giants. That would have been catastrophic.

I might go to some Angels' games to watch this kid. I can park at my friend's and walk to the stadium. Yeah, the stadium is a soulless POS, but it's convenient.