[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Mark17

Since I was a kid, I've always considered Babe Ruth the greatest baseball player because he was the best hitter and, in his day, the best left-handed pitcher. His won-lost record was 94-46, a .671 percentage. Granted, he was on a team that won 3 World Series from 1915-1918, but still, pretty impressive.

So here's Ohtani, who's average is far below Ruth's, but his power numbers, if he plays as long as the Babe did, may end up similar. Ohtani's pitching record is 38-19, a .667 percentage, entirely with the lowly Angels.

And, this year, so far, 52 steals and been caught just 4 times. In his career, Ruth had more caught stealing than steals.

Imagine Babe Ruth. A pitcher with a 2-1 win/loss ratio, who is also a huge power hitter. Now suppose he could also steal 50+ bases with a 90% efficiency.

Ohtani has a long way tyo go to be in Babe Ruth's league in terms of career accomplishments but will there ever be a baseball player with such an impressive 3-way skill set:

Hitting: Huge impact hitter with at least one 50+ HR season
Pitching: First-rate pitcher, with a .667 winning % for a poor team
Running: Incredible base stealer, both in terms of volume (50+ in a season) and efficiency.

I'd love to see the guy playing shortstop or center field, just to show he can quite literally do everything.

According to baseball-reference.com, Ruth had 123 stolen bases and 116 caught stealing so not quite caught more than successful. Before this season, Ohtani was at 86 steals and 33 caught so still better than Ruth but nothing like what he's doing this year. It will be interesting to see what his stats are for steals next season if he's pitching again. I would expect the steals to go down to around what he has done before this year to help him conserve energy for the mound.