Blowtani

[Warfarin]

5 minutes ago, totdprods said:

@Warfarin, I could see him getting AAA time if he's struggling after a couple months, but I don't think uprooting him further by hucking another level of pressure onto him by a last minute change of plans and a detour to SLC is going to help him either. Not at the onset of the year.

The talent is there, the expectations he's placed upon himself are there, and he's ready to *try* to compete against MLB players. He's dominated AAA-equivalent talent at a brilliantly young age. It's best for him and the Angels to give him some patience and give him a shot. If he was a traditional MILB prospect it would be time for him to get his first taste of the bigs anyway.

He/we didn't go through all these hoops and sacrifices for him to be standing on a mound in Utah in April with a 27 ERA wondering what the hell happened. I could see that being as damaging and unnerving for him as taking lumps in the bigs would be. 

 

Those are good points, and I do see the benefit of having him start off in the rotation too.  I think we should all keep an open mind and see how his next few starts unfold.  The ERA and results don't really matter so much as how his approach does, how he responds to various situations, how his pitches look, etc.  

If he keeps getting shelled and looks lost out there, then sure, we should consider the possibility that maybe he isn't ready just yet, and he would be better served working on various things in AAA.  If he turns it around and looks progressively more comfortable, then of course we'll roll with him at the start of the season.  I think it's important not to say "HE MUST START IN THE MLB" or "OMG HIS SPRING STATS ARE AWFUL, SEND HIM DOWN!"  There are no absolutes - we must keep an open mind and see how he evolves from start to start.  Obviously the last two have not been good.  Let's look for some progress in his next one.

[GrittyVeterans]

His fastball looks straight. The talent is pretty obvious, but the fact  his fastball doesn't move much laterally has me at least a little concerned. Think he'll be fine though

[Spirit]

[JustATroutFan]

Eh, Trout didn't do so good last season with the Angels, as he posted an OPS under .700 in 40 games. I don't think Trout will do any better in 2012 and beyond. What another wasted draft pick by the Angels. Brandon Wood 2.0.

[Slegnaac]

13 hours ago, OHTANILAND said:

Maybe we should just make him a closer. 

He can close every 6th day

[Slegnaac]

Just consider Ohtani a rule 5 player that we are going to keep on the 25 man roster all year.

[eligrba]

11 hours ago, ANAHEIMBOB said:

Everybody knows I'm Scioscia's biggest fan, I think Mike knows Ohtani isn't ready for MLB baseball. He started Ohtani in two soft spots, trying to build his confidence. If he doesn't start off in AAA, somebody else made the decision. 

I agree.  Based on his performances as a pitcher and hitter so far this spring, I would be very surprised if Ohtani makes the major league roster.   Based on my extremely limited knowledge of the situation, Ohtani seems like a humble person who is not consumed by his own self worth.  I can easily see Ohtani asking to be sent to AAA to work on some things before beginning his major league career.  If he truly believes what he said about why he selected the Angels, this should not be a big deal.

The only other reasonable explanation for his dismal spring is that he is injured, and not being completely honest about it.

[Troll Daddy]

 

[Troll Daddy]

Good read  ... Ohtani doesn’t seem rattled by his performance thus far. I like that about him. 

[Troll Daddy]

 

[bloodbrother]

Shohei "Kei Igawa" Ohtani

[UndertheHalo]

23 hours ago, OHTANILAND said:

Relax everyone, he’s bringing in his personal pitching coach’s....

daughters to work with him.

 

 I give both these chicks a grade 80 for make up on the scouting scale.  Great mechanics also. 

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by UndertheHalo

[IheartLA]

I remember in ST 2015 Jung Ho Kang was terrible for the Pirates then once the season started he went beast mode. Same for Hyun Soo Kim in 2016. Those stories are well documented. Imagine a top US player took a criquet job in India and was expected to go ham from the word go with no language/friends/etc. 

I think if he was just a pitcher no one would be really that worried, he's been K'ing people pretty nasty, he'll be an asset to the staff. However the hitting side he could definitely be a negative value, and how exactly is he going to improve if he's expected to pitch at the MLB level. And considering he's got some work to do on the mount he can't just go cruise control on pitching and focus more time on film/cages on just hitting.

If he's pitching like 3.5ERA 1K/1IN he's still plus value for us so he's not going to get sent down, but if he's hitting .200 then we can't really just give at bats away. This experiment only really will work if he's good at both or good at pitching/average at hitting, and since he's a DH the bar for an average hitter is actually quite high.

[nando714]

3 hours ago, IheartLA said:

I remember in ST 2015 Jung Ho Kang was terrible for the Pirates then once the season started he went beast mode. Same for Hyun Soo Kim in 2016. Those stories are well documented. Imagine a top US player took a criquet job in India and was expected to go ham from the word go with no language/friends/etc. 

I think if he was just a pitcher no one would be really that worried, he's been K'ing people pretty nasty, he'll be an asset to the staff. However the hitting side he could definitely be a negative value, and how exactly is he going to improve if he's expected to pitch at the MLB level. And considering he's got some work to do on the mount he can't just go cruise control on pitching and focus more time on film/cages on just hitting.

If he's pitching like 3.5ERA 1K/1IN he's still plus value for us so he's not going to get sent down, but if he's hitting .200 then we can't really just give at bats away. This experiment only really will work if he's good at both or good at pitching/average at hitting, and since he's a DH the bar for an average hitter is actually quite high.

Well he isn’t changing sports 

hes going from Japanese league to Major League Baseball. 

I stopped reading after criquet

[Lou]

I stopped reading at ST 2015

[Inside Pitch]

10 hours ago, Troll Daddy said:

Good read  ... Ohtani doesn’t seem rattled by his performance thus far. I like that about him. 

Best part of that article is reading that he had a history of tanking during Japanese spring training too.

[IheartLA]

1 hour ago, nando714 said:

Well he isn’t changing sports 

hes going from Japanese league to Major League Baseball. 

I stopped reading after criquet

You must have a low IQ, I meant top US criquet player moving to play in India because I thought they were #1 in criquet. I picked a random sport. Ohtani doesn't speak any English and the culture shock from Japan to USA is huge. I used an American going to India as an example so people would understand the gravity in change of culture. 

Everyone here is probably an American so they probably can't really relate to the culture/language shock. 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

On 3/16/2018 at 9:24 AM, NJHalo said:

 

North

I have passed under that sign many times. It's between my house and downtown Las Vegas on US 95.

[Rico]

On 3/16/2018 at 1:22 PM, OHTANILAND said:

 

 

That's a balk!

[tdawg87]

22 minutes ago, calscuf said:

Well she’s not on the rubber.

Neither am I 

[Rico]

Raw tdawg

[Vegas Halo Fan]

23 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

 The combination of thin air and altitude can make for some curious results... 

There is a place in New Jersey that is about the same elevation as Phoenix.

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

On 3/16/2018 at 1:57 PM, Chuckster70 said:

Yeah, because major league proven pitchers never get rocked in spring training. 

Exactly, he looked like Darvish in the World Series, and we all know how bad he is.

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

On 3/16/2018 at 2:20 PM, Blarg said:

Ohtani's ERA is over 30, Chuck. 

With any luck Ohtani gets out of the second giving up 1 ER. He was extremely unlucky with every hit in the inning except for the HRs. He looked like he was shaken from the first HR and then those weakly hit balls just kept finding holes. It had to be frustrating for him, Hopefully he will learn from this moving forward.

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

On 3/16/2018 at 3:06 PM, fan_since79 said:

It's not the end of the world if Ohtani spends a little time in Salt Lake to work on his stuff.

I would like Bridwell to take that rotation spot. Yes, I know he's struggled a bit this spring, but still...10-3 last year with a nice ERA.

Bridwell was lucky last year.