Gameday: 3/16 Angels vs Rockies

[Troll Daddy]

 

[Chuck]

The Angels only have two pitchers after Ohtani today. 

They gotta be praying he's efficient with his pitches. 

[Make Angels Great Again]

Ohtani is gonna kill it 

[Dick Enberg]

Huge test for Othani today. Rox can hit, and first time SO facing full time regular ML hitters. Today will tell us a lot. 

[krAbs]

12 minutes ago, Dick Enberg said:

Huge test for Othani today. Rox can hit, and first time SO facing full time regular ML hitters. Today will tell us a lot. 

I agree. I have been forcing myself not to read too much into early results and panic in his previous games. If he gets shelled today, I will start to get really nervous about him being ready to start the season.

[Second Base]

It's go-time for Ohtani. Or Sho-time, but I think you guys get it.

The Angels have been fine with the inconsistencies because it's Spring Training, and this is his first year playing here, so that sort of thing will happen.

While Shohei will be a two-way player for the Angels, Scioscia has made no secret of the fact that Ohtani is a pitcher first.

The Angels are counting on him for 150+ innings this year, and those should be very high quality innings given his immense talent.

The season is just around the corner, so it's time for him to show the Angels a little of what they can expect this season.

It's a hitter friendly environment against s very good offensive team, so they might put up some crooked numbers. But we'll need to see Ohtani locate and throw his off-speed pitches for a strike.

I don't care about the line so much as I care about seeing this "prospect" show the ability to locate and adjust.

[Troll Daddy]

 

[eaterfan]

He hasn't pitched in 2 years. His fastball velocity has tucked up each start. It will take him awhile to get it back. It's spring training.

[fan_since79]

I'm less concerned with Ohtani's pitching than I am with his hitting. He looks overmatched out there.

Major/minor spring training pitching >>> Japanese pitching.

 

 

[fan_since79]

3 hours ago, Chuckster70 said:

The Angels only have two pitchers after Ohtani today. 

They gotta be praying he's efficient with his pitches. 

I don't understand why there are only two pitchers behind him. What if the unthinkable happens and Ohtani gets dehydrated in the first inning? Then we're screwed.

[Docwaukee]

5 minutes ago, fan_since79 said:

I don't understand why there are only two pitchers behind him. What if the unthinkable happens and Ohtani gets dehydrated in the first inning? Then we're screwed.

they probably just didn't list a couple of minor league guys who will be handling the last couple innings.  

[Pablo]

8 minutes ago, Throwman91 said:

This or his next start (last) should make or break him, however I don't think the media will allow him to go to SLC. 

I kinda have a problem with this. At the end of the day there is much money at stake; Angels front office should/must/will do whatever is needed. If that means sending Ohtani down for a month, I sure as heck hope the media doesn't get a vote. They could even spin it publicly with a Kris Bryant kind of thing; extending his club-controlled years.  As long as they communicate clearly to Shohei that this is for his own good and development, which I think shouldn't be too tough considering the eye-opening he has probably gotten this spring.  At the end of the day, it's transparent to the Angels; they established a 6-man rotation for Ohtani; if he gets sent down they still have the other five starters for a standard rotation. Added benefit, an extra bench guy for a month or two.

[eaterfan]

3 minutes ago, Pablo said:

I kinda have a problem with this. At the end of the day there is much money at stake; Angels front office should/must/will do whatever is needed. If that means sending Ohtani down for a month, I sure as heck hope the media doesn't get a vote. They could even spin it publicly with a Kris Bryant kind of thing; extending his club-controlled years.  As long as they communicate clearly to Shohei that this is for his own good and development, which I think shouldn't be too tough considering the eye-opening he has probably gotten this spring.  At the end of the day, it's transparent to the Angels; they established a 6-man rotation for Ohtani; if he gets sent down they still have the other five starters for a standard rotation. Added benefit, an extra bench guy for a month or two.

The media won't get "a vote". It's probably Ohtani who would be resistant to going down. The Angels don't have to listen, but they probably do if they want to ever sign a big time international FA like that again. They can't say it's to manipulate service time. That's against the CBA. The Cubs pretended it wasn't about service time. Also, there isn't that much money at stake. The Angels paid peanuts for Ohtani. Even with his struggles he's still one of their top 5 starters. Hopefully he can develop in the major leagues too. It's not like players stop getting coaching. We even have a dedicated "pitching coach" to help them.

[mtangelsfan]

This whole notion of Ohtani starting in the minors is kind of weird to me.  Which five other starters have been lighting up the Cactus league this spring?

 

[Docwaukee]

There's no way they play the service time game with him.  Wouldn't surprise me if it's in his contract that he can't be optioned without his consent.  If the union would allow that anyway.  

[daygloman]

Go Halos!

[Make Angels Great Again]

mmmmmm that pitch was close.

[Make Angels Great Again]

Good morning, good afternoon, good night.

[JustATroutFan]

Ohtani could struggle in his rookie season but not every great players do well in their first year in the majors. Kershaw was mediocre in his first season in the majors in 2008.

[tdawg87]

2 minutes ago, mtangelsfan said:

This whole notion of Ohtani starting in the minors is kind of weird to me.  Which five other starters have been lighting up the Cactus league this spring?

 

Seriously. 

I think it would be a huge media disaster for Arte and the Angels if Ohtani isn't on the opening day roster. Remember how much shit they got for a tweet about Hamilton? Imagine that times 100.

[JustATroutFan]

Another great player example would be Greg Maddux. He was pretty bad in his rookie season way back in the 1987 and would go on to have an outstanding MLB career. 

[Vlad27Trout27]

fastball command has looked really good so far. the off speed not so much.

[Aaronkv]

1 minute ago, Vlad27Trout27 said:

fastball command has looked really good so far. the off speed not so much.

Just in time to drop a sick curve

[Ochocinco!]

This is the best he’s looked so far this spring. Fastball looks like it’s clocking in higher than previous starts. Slider has been beautiful so far. Other than a questionable walk and a opposite field hit by the best player in the NL  he looks damn good so far. 

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

4 minutes ago, JustATroutFan said:

Ohtani could struggle in his rookie season but not every great players do well in their first year in the majors. Kershaw was mediocre in his first season in the majors in 2008.

Koufax struggled for 3 or 4 years before becoming the most dominant pitcher in his era.