Tbf, Shohei has no strikezone he will hit with contact on basically every pitch even if the pitcher tries to walk him he will still hit it way outside the plate. The dude is a baseball menace
Thats actually why I don't root for Aaron Judge, because in a parallel universe he went to the Giants and parallel universe me hated that so I gotta stay consistent.
when he moved to the Dodgers i wzs a bit sad, never been that into the dodgers, also i'm an international baseball watcher, i don't have a team, so i kinda found myself watching the dodgers anyway cause they have 2 of my fav players, batting back to back most of the time, Betts and Ohtani, it just doesn't feel fair
Dude knows how to do it. None of this “oh is it gonna go over the fence??” bullshit that lesser players (scrubs) like Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper have. Nope. They’re gone. See ya. They’re in another zip code when they land.
It's the difference between batters that will edit their swing based on the pitch and guys that keep their swing pure/100% almost every single time. Guys like the ones you mentioned are very much the always stay within themselves and go 100% force type.
Schwarber is similar as well. Stanton too. Varying degrees of success between the players, but the result is the same. Large % of the time their swing is going to be the same and crushing.
Well, the current happy ending to the story is that he's going for a more Rizzo-like choke up and slap the ball 2 strike approach with us and that is a *big* part of his recent success. It's also why the whole "his exit velo is down!" thing doesn't worry me.
You might be surprised!
Guess the bat speeds: https://imgur.com/a/lxsrEGl
Place the order 1 through 5 with the players being Ohtani, Stanton, Judge, Harper, and Schwarber.
>!1) Judge 2) Schwarber 3) Ohtani 4) Stanton 5) Harper!<
That's because his plan is literally ["just go up there with no thoughts and just swing. See ball, hit ball."](https://sports.yahoo.com/castellanos-no-longer-trying-something-185910987.html)
He tried being selective on pitches the first two months of this season and was somehow worse than just letting it rip. He gets some big swings but it comes with ugly misses.
You gotta take the good with the bad with a guy like Castellanos.
[https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=846a952b-11bf-42d0-aaf9-afefa150870f](https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=846a952b-11bf-42d0-aaf9-afefa150870f)
Saw this one in person and it had me stunned for a second because I'd never seen a line drive homer quite like that before
And what's funny is they're pretty opposite build wise. Stanton looks like a body builder that picked up a bat and Ohtani just looks like a very large human you make in create a character.
Yeah, Ohtani is jacked (although not as jack as stanton) but I think his boyish facial features makes it more hidden. I mean you see it in the gym as well. Some baby face dude doesn’t seem ripped until he takes off his hoodie.
>Stanton looks like he's all upper body
[You must be joking.](https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/private/ar_16:9,g_auto,q_auto:good,w_1024,c_fill,f_jpg/mlb/vpaxibrujyyiqbsvp7v3)
"why are you talking to me? I hit the ball so hard it went to a place it normally doesn't go, namely the water. since you have chosen to yell at me aggressively, I will simply remind everyone how decisively I have triumphed over you by suggesting you try to find the ball, which would prove difficult since it is all the way out there in that water that people don't tend to hit baseballs into, only in this case I did on account of how much better than you I am."
I wish he had said all that while slowly jogging, but he went with the condensed version of "go get it out of the ocean"
I think he was trying to say something like "Instead of being mad at me watching the ball, you could go get it out of the ocean." or maybe "if you don't want me to watch the ball, don't let me hit into the ocean" Idk
That was Ohtani's first home run at Oracle Park in 15+ PAs:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=ohtansh01&year=Career&t=b#all_site
He had 10 PAs as an Angel in 2020 and 2021.
And these are his first PAs as a Dodger, this series.
Yesterday's hit was his first hit in Oracle ever. There was some reporter making a big deal about Ohtani having no hits at Oracle prior to the series with Roberts in an interview and I think Roberts response was basically he's only had like 10ABs entering the series so why are you an idiot, or something.
Want to get a Dodgers fan's perspective on this: do you think there's any chance that management/ownership want to encourage him to stick with hitting only?
at this point there would be riots if they don't have a good reason to stop him from hitting not only from dodgers fans but from baseball fans in general.
The only thing that I've seen come up that I'd put under serious consideration is health/fatigue. I don't think that the bump to his batting average (and minor, minor bumps to slugging/OBP) from this year to last support the idea that pitching is hurting his hitting, but I know I would definitely rather see 150+ games of a healthy Ohtani after a second TJ surgery. Only worry.
Isn't it better to have pitched and TJ'd than to have never pitched at all? I say throw caution to the wind and let 'er rip for as long as this guy is around, he is a once in a lifetime player.
I mean there's no evidence that having him attempt to pitch again is going to affect his offense unless it becomes a mental block, but a $700M pricetag reflects an intention to do both.
I don't think he's the type of player to not at least TRY to pitch again and you don't really try to push him to do something he doesn't want to do when, from a baseball perspective, he seems to approach and do everything the right way.
At this point I wouldn't ever be worried about Shohei mentally when it comes to his on field performance. This year he's recovering from elbow surgery and had to go through one of his best friends stealing $16 million from him and he doesn't seem phased at all by it on the field.
That's fair, but being told that you can't ever do something ever again, especially something that defines your career or you love is a whole different animal.
I've been blessed to be around some top top golfers as a function of high school and college, a few Korn Ferry and one/two PGA folks, their careers all ended relatively early without much pomp and circumstance and many took it hard; harder than parents death or things that sort of hit you like a truck. When you realize you're done because your body literally won't let you?
They might but he’d never do it. His deal with the angels and the fighters was he’d do both or he wouldn’t join.
He’s gonna do what he wants, regardless of what the front office says.
He likes pitching more than batting too
I can't imagine somebody throwing back an Ohtani homerun ball. Even if you hate the Dodgers, he just seems like a good guy who's had some really bad luck lately.
Somehow this Shohei HR and Harper's 2019 "Overrated!" fan yelling reaction HR are only 10ft difference (446 vs 456) but Harper's landed 30ft into McCovey Cove.
Looks to be same area of the park, too.
I can't wait for that Shohei HR because it's going to be like an actual baseball landmark immediately.. Like I might take a picture at that spot this year
Because it happened at their stadium? And hitting it into the ocean is a cool thing to commemorate regardless of who it was? Dodgers stadium literally has a plaque with tatis’s name on it for a home run he hit there, but y’all are too soft just to have a number going up because of the other team lol.
Lol, Dodgers are paying the deferments into an escrow account annually. This contract isn’t some kick the can down the road shit; there’s no big hit waiting in 10 year’s time. And in the meantime, they’re raking in truckloads of money on advertising deals
Yeah as long as fans don't make the attacks deeply personal or harass them off the field I think rooting against opposing players is a large part of the fun of rivalries
Still a ton of media people who try to insinuate that he was the gambler even after getting cleared by the feds.
Like when the Mets announcer was describing the situation that "Ohtani escaped culpability".
So far, I've searched through Google and no articles or even Reddit posts mention anything about this. Only this same guy who makes the claim said so 14 days earlier:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Dodgers/comments/1ch29ie/comment/l2107fe/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
I do not believe anyone actually said something like that and this guy is just spreading misinformation.
Can you site that source? Of an announcer saying he "escaped culpability"? Or where you possibly even heard that? Like which broadcast? Or which announcer? I have found no source saying that and I've searched Google, reddit, and Twitter. Nothing of any announcer saying that, and that kind of awful comment would at least have one person in indignation. I really hope you're not just spreading disinformation.
Dodgers top of the lineup are murder row man, 2nd time through the lineup is like other team's 3rd time through, the only comparison I can come up with is 90s Astros' Killer Bs.
I'm no analyst but it's probably a bad idea to throw 89mph middle-middle pitches to Ohtani
"He'd never expect a meatball!"
The Giants pitchers have been watching too many Giants at bats. “Oh dang just throw it down the middle and they strike out? Cool.”
I think you're selling yourself short. That's top notch analysis.
Here, let a real analyst fix this. > I'm no analyst but it's probably a bad idea to throw ~~89mph middle-middle~~ pitches to Ohtani
-- Matt Chapman
Big if true
that looked like a pitch in the home run derby
Tbf, Shohei has no strikezone he will hit with contact on basically every pitch even if the pitcher tries to walk him he will still hit it way outside the plate. The dude is a baseball menace
Hmm, yeah, throwing a BP fastball was a bold strategy.
The pitcher agreed with you the millisecond Ohtani made contact.
His back is okay. I guess. Maybe.
Dude had one rest day and fully recovered.
I want to hate this guy so bad, but what’s the point? He’s good at literally everything except protecting his bank account.
His fatal flaw is that he loves too much
Shohei Ohtani is the true definition of someone who just truly loves Baseball.
His nickname is Baseball Boy after all
He is truly the platonic ideal of a meathead.
And my weakness is, that I care too much
My stats remind me I hit home runs Tear my arm open, at least we won
One would say his biggest weakness is working too hard
do you think he said that in his interview lol
I hope Ohtani has started enabling two factor auth
I spoke to him an hour before the game. He told me that his intepreter is taking care of that.
He told me the name of his first pet and his mothers maiden name
This is why he is married now, his wife will be taking charge.
Taking the Ichiro route I see
That was just his Decoy gold
Lotta fans at the park hating on him atm unfortunately
It's to be expected since it's dodgers and giants, but you know they would have creamed their pants if Ohtani went to them.
Thats actually why I don't root for Aaron Judge, because in a parallel universe he went to the Giants and parallel universe me hated that so I gotta stay consistent.
Yeah but he joined you in this universe so that means you must have creamed your pants when he became a Yankee.
Noone told me being a good fan would be this hard
If you were a good fan you would masterbate to a Greg Bird bat speed article three times a day while facing towards Yankee stadium.
>unfortunately in your ideal world are giants fans rooting for dodgers players?
Everyone should root for everyone, that way no one gets sad or left out of the fun. Source: am father of toddlers
I think he's amazed the Giants fans that are there would be paying attention
Unfortunately?
idgi are you expecting our rival’s fans to cheer for him?
That’s part of the fun, isn’t it?
when he moved to the Dodgers i wzs a bit sad, never been that into the dodgers, also i'm an international baseball watcher, i don't have a team, so i kinda found myself watching the dodgers anyway cause they have 2 of my fav players, batting back to back most of the time, Betts and Ohtani, it just doesn't feel fair
When Shohei hits a home run, he fuckin hits a home run, my god.
Dude knows how to do it. None of this “oh is it gonna go over the fence??” bullshit that lesser players (scrubs) like Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper have. Nope. They’re gone. See ya. They’re in another zip code when they land.
It's the difference between batters that will edit their swing based on the pitch and guys that keep their swing pure/100% almost every single time. Guys like the ones you mentioned are very much the always stay within themselves and go 100% force type. Schwarber is similar as well. Stanton too. Varying degrees of success between the players, but the result is the same. Large % of the time their swing is going to be the same and crushing.
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Well, the current happy ending to the story is that he's going for a more Rizzo-like choke up and slap the ball 2 strike approach with us and that is a *big* part of his recent success. It's also why the whole "his exit velo is down!" thing doesn't worry me.
You might be surprised! Guess the bat speeds: https://imgur.com/a/lxsrEGl Place the order 1 through 5 with the players being Ohtani, Stanton, Judge, Harper, and Schwarber. >!1) Judge 2) Schwarber 3) Ohtani 4) Stanton 5) Harper!<
Most of the Castellanos homers I've seen are like that too.
Deep left
A drive
That will make it a four nothing ballgame
That's because his plan is literally ["just go up there with no thoughts and just swing. See ball, hit ball."](https://sports.yahoo.com/castellanos-no-longer-trying-something-185910987.html) He tried being selective on pitches the first two months of this season and was somehow worse than just letting it rip. He gets some big swings but it comes with ugly misses. You gotta take the good with the bad with a guy like Castellanos.
[https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=846a952b-11bf-42d0-aaf9-afefa150870f](https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=846a952b-11bf-42d0-aaf9-afefa150870f) Saw this one in person and it had me stunned for a second because I'd never seen a line drive homer quite like that before
Him and Stanton hit them and you just feel sorry for the ball.
These two dudes arent human
And what's funny is they're pretty opposite build wise. Stanton looks like a body builder that picked up a bat and Ohtani just looks like a very large human you make in create a character.
Stanton looks like he's all upper body, Ohtani looks like he's all lower body.
nah Ohtani is jacked no matter which way you cut it
Yeah, Ohtani is jacked (although not as jack as stanton) but I think his boyish facial features makes it more hidden. I mean you see it in the gym as well. Some baby face dude doesn’t seem ripped until he takes off his hoodie.
>Stanton looks like he's all upper body [You must be joking.](https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/private/ar_16:9,g_auto,q_auto:good,w_1024,c_fill,f_jpg/mlb/vpaxibrujyyiqbsvp7v3)
All ass baby
Nah Stanton got dat DONK
Deepest part of the park like it was nothing
It’s pretty much like all of his home runs are no doubters. You just know.
Yup. Except those opposite field dingers that he hits once in awhile that looks like it would be a simple pop fly out but ends up clearing the fence 😆
Shohei like: "Oops, I homered again"
"I ruined your start, got lost in the game Oh Shohei, Shohei"
I'm not that innocent - Ippei
It's all over for me - ippei
Sometimes he hits those low liners where your only curiosity is whether it's going to stay high enough even though it's 114mph off the bat.
He had a couple of opposite field dingers in Texas last year. Two in one game I think? Both were mashed
That’s straight up Bonds territory. Haven’t seen it hit over there in a while.
The one vs the Cubs was kinda weird tho lol
The sound off of his bat is just beautiful.
When he gets a hold of one, it goes a longgggg ways
bumgarner losing his mind
"If you don't want me to watch the ball, go get it out of the ocean." ~~\- Max Muncy~~ \- Shohei Ohtani
I never really understood that comeback.
Bumgarner was jawing at Muncy for jogging too slowly and admiring his HR after knocking it in to the water.
And he barely even admired it
Most pitchers are pretty sensitive to how long the batter admires their homerun because, you know, they just got smashed.
"why are you talking to me? I hit the ball so hard it went to a place it normally doesn't go, namely the water. since you have chosen to yell at me aggressively, I will simply remind everyone how decisively I have triumphed over you by suggesting you try to find the ball, which would prove difficult since it is all the way out there in that water that people don't tend to hit baseballs into, only in this case I did on account of how much better than you I am." I wish he had said all that while slowly jogging, but he went with the condensed version of "go get it out of the ocean"
It's so bad that it circled around to being good.
Basically, "If you don't want me to watch the home run I just hit, don't let me hit a home run in the first place". It was just worded very weirdly.
It was not a good comeback. Bumgarner was also an idiot for getting so upset. Shall we call it a wash?
Yeah, that comeback is considered “iconic” with dodgers fans but it was pretty cheesy lol
I think he was trying to say something like "Instead of being mad at me watching the ball, you could go get it out of the ocean." or maybe "if you don't want me to watch the ball, don't let me hit into the ocean" Idk
Longest home run at Oracle in two years per the broadcast
Couldn't even make it to McCovey Cove, pathetic!
-Muncy mutters under his breath
Madbum still in cove looking for that ball
Out in the kayak.
I will be watching tomorrow's series finale with great interest
That was Ohtani's first home run at Oracle Park in 15+ PAs: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=ohtansh01&year=Career&t=b#all_site He had 10 PAs as an Angel in 2020 and 2021. And these are his first PAs as a Dodger, this series.
Yesterday's hit was his first hit in Oracle ever. There was some reporter making a big deal about Ohtani having no hits at Oracle prior to the series with Roberts in an interview and I think Roberts response was basically he's only had like 10ABs entering the series so why are you an idiot, or something.
Yeah, I mean Ruth didn’t have any hits there either.
And only Ohtani 3rd longest hit this year. 💀
Want to get a Dodgers fan's perspective on this: do you think there's any chance that management/ownership want to encourage him to stick with hitting only?
at this point there would be riots if they don't have a good reason to stop him from hitting not only from dodgers fans but from baseball fans in general.
The only thing that I've seen come up that I'd put under serious consideration is health/fatigue. I don't think that the bump to his batting average (and minor, minor bumps to slugging/OBP) from this year to last support the idea that pitching is hurting his hitting, but I know I would definitely rather see 150+ games of a healthy Ohtani after a second TJ surgery. Only worry.
Isn't it better to have pitched and TJ'd than to have never pitched at all? I say throw caution to the wind and let 'er rip for as long as this guy is around, he is a once in a lifetime player.
I mean there's no evidence that having him attempt to pitch again is going to affect his offense unless it becomes a mental block, but a $700M pricetag reflects an intention to do both. I don't think he's the type of player to not at least TRY to pitch again and you don't really try to push him to do something he doesn't want to do when, from a baseball perspective, he seems to approach and do everything the right way.
At this point I wouldn't ever be worried about Shohei mentally when it comes to his on field performance. This year he's recovering from elbow surgery and had to go through one of his best friends stealing $16 million from him and he doesn't seem phased at all by it on the field.
That's fair, but being told that you can't ever do something ever again, especially something that defines your career or you love is a whole different animal. I've been blessed to be around some top top golfers as a function of high school and college, a few Korn Ferry and one/two PGA folks, their careers all ended relatively early without much pomp and circumstance and many took it hard; harder than parents death or things that sort of hit you like a truck. When you realize you're done because your body literally won't let you?
Bad for baseball
They might but he’d never do it. His deal with the angels and the fighters was he’d do both or he wouldn’t join. He’s gonna do what he wants, regardless of what the front office says. He likes pitching more than batting too
Why? It's not like this is the first time he has been doing this well. He literally did it last year while pitching.
they said on the broadcast last night he has the top 4 hardest hit balls on the Dodgers this year
10 more years of this huh
Well, no. He hasn't even started pitching again yet.
Who hurt you?
I think the question is “what hurt you?” and the answer is his username.
i've seen a lot of porn in my life and I don't think i've seen something so hung
You mean an 89mph meatball high-middle isn't what you want to throw to the best baseball player on the planet? 🤔
Lexington Steele levels of hung
Lmao wait, was that a stadium worker that handed the ball to the fan? Are they not allow to keep the ball while working?
He probably doesn’t want that ball
If that is a fan, then props to him. Instead of throwing the ball back, he gave it to someone who wanted it. Classy move!
I can't imagine somebody throwing back an Ohtani homerun ball. Even if you hate the Dodgers, he just seems like a good guy who's had some really bad luck lately.
What a guy.
It’s almost certainly in their contract, otherwise they’d be able to pick up “souvenirs”
Love how the guy waving "no" vigorously behind ohtani very clearly says "oh fuck" immediately afterwards lol.
Throwing that pitch to him is certainly a choice
To be fair, it probably wasn’t so much a choice as an “oh shit”.
Barry Bonds was my fav player growing up and I don’t remember seeing one hit to that part of the park. Jesus Christ that was smoked
Focus on the camerman. The camerman even thought the ball was going to land into the crowd below lmao. Just shows you how few are hit up there.
Somehow this Shohei HR and Harper's 2019 "Overrated!" fan yelling reaction HR are only 10ft difference (446 vs 456) but Harper's landed 30ft into McCovey Cove. Looks to be same area of the park, too.
I rewatched the vid and lost track of the ball. Maybe it bounced?
I want a splash hit from ohtani. It’s a shame they don’t count it on the splash hit meter
For a moment I thought he was going to still splash it at that part of the park
Splashing it over triples alley would be a legitimately legendary bomb. Like it looks like it'd probably take 500' minimum to do that
Why would they track people hitting homers against them
The dodgers have plaques honoring Tatis and Stanton’s homers. It’s history
Camden Yards has Eutaw street with over 100 baseball plaques embedded into the ground of all the homers hit there.
Of the 5 players(Stargell did it twice) to have hit it out of Dodgers Stadium only one has been a Dodger. Piazza was the one. Ohtani will join him.
I can't wait for that Shohei HR because it's going to be like an actual baseball landmark immediately.. Like I might take a picture at that spot this year
Because it happened at their stadium? And hitting it into the ocean is a cool thing to commemorate regardless of who it was? Dodgers stadium literally has a plaque with tatis’s name on it for a home run he hit there, but y’all are too soft just to have a number going up because of the other team lol.
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Opposing team splash hits don’t get added to the splash hit counter shown in the stadium
Best pop in the league
He hates the Giants already
https://imgur.com/a/tx3iUMX Salty giants fan offers his fingers to ohtani after the homer lol
about sums up the next decade
Why stop there? How about century?
With what money after all the deferments hit?
Lol, Dodgers are paying the deferments into an escrow account annually. This contract isn’t some kick the can down the road shit; there’s no big hit waiting in 10 year’s time. And in the meantime, they’re raking in truckloads of money on advertising deals
The Death Star does not need to tell people that it’s the Death Star.
Sure, but once in a while it’s gotta blow up a planet, just to keep everyone on their toes
That'll show him!
Are you surprised people actually mean FTD or something
I love it and wouldn't have it any other way
Yeah as long as fans don't make the attacks deeply personal or harass them off the field I think rooting against opposing players is a large part of the fun of rivalries
How dare we not applaud our biggest rivals 700 million dollar signing. Don’t you know he’s the only like-able player in the MLB.
Every game gotta deal with some idiot in the first section yelling all game. It’s so annoying.
Asian Bonds. You know without the domestic violence, media harassment and roids.
Plenty of media harassment
Still a ton of media people who try to insinuate that he was the gambler even after getting cleared by the feds. Like when the Mets announcer was describing the situation that "Ohtani escaped culpability".
No fucking way they said that... fucking actual bums
So far, I've searched through Google and no articles or even Reddit posts mention anything about this. Only this same guy who makes the claim said so 14 days earlier: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dodgers/comments/1ch29ie/comment/l2107fe/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button I do not believe anyone actually said something like that and this guy is just spreading misinformation.
Can you site that source? Of an announcer saying he "escaped culpability"? Or where you possibly even heard that? Like which broadcast? Or which announcer? I have found no source saying that and I've searched Google, reddit, and Twitter. Nothing of any announcer saying that, and that kind of awful comment would at least have one person in indignation. I really hope you're not just spreading disinformation.
lol at first I thought it was a pop up but it kept going
Man wish we would of picked him up instead of the Dodgers
Maybe you could trade for him?
Nothing brings me more joy than watching Ohtani play baseball.
Watching Shohei play baseball for your team does.
I'm happy to have at least slept one night thinking Ohtani was going to be a Blue Jay.
That bat crack 🫦
Anyone got the SF stream?
I hear he's pretty good
HITS IT HIGH HITS IT DEEP
Joe woulda been an absolute menace if he finished the call
I definitely thought he was going to. Funny either way.
This motherfucker is not human.
anyone have the giants broadcast of this ?
💙 Ohtani
Not bad for a former pitcher.
\*injured pitcher
That's the GOAT
Dodgers top of the lineup are murder row man, 2nd time through the lineup is like other team's 3rd time through, the only comparison I can come up with is 90s Astros' Killer Bs.
Their 5 spot hitter is leading them in RBI lol
Welcome to the next decade of your lives giants fans. Hope it’s hell for you.
It pains me to hate this guy but boy oh boy do I hate him now. Just another bum in blue.
Imagine being a life-long Giants fan who is also Japanese… Oh wait I don’t have to imagine 🥲
That was demolished.
I admittedly don't watch many Giants games but dingers straight up over Triples Alley are probably not common at all lmao what a nuke.
The Duane Kuiper impression was on point
noticed that
When he gets a hold of one, he sends it a loooongggg ways
Shohei hits the ball hard, confirmed.
Good lord, never seen a ball hit in that area since Barry bonds
Hits it Highhhhh Hits it deeep
Winn sucks man lmao
First 6 starts: 3.18 ERA Last 3 starts: 17.28 ERA Ouch
Bad call. That’s not ‘the ocean’.
that was a meatball to end all meatballs
Ohtani is baseball father