Quote:
Originally Posted by packs
Ohtani's track record is what brings things into question. He is unquestionably having one of the most remarkable seasons anyone has ever had. But he also had a real turd of a season last year and wasn't particularly good either year before that, even if we won ROY.
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You bring up a reasonable point, but I'm going to disagree. His rookie year was pretty impressive. Admittedly, it wasn't one for the record books, but that's a very high bar for rookie performance. He had a bad year last year, largely due to lingering injuries (in my lay opinion). Prior to those years, he was outstanding in Japan. I know a lot people dismiss that with comments about little league parks, etc, but I don't. Like Ichiro before him, he is a real talent that translates to MLB.
Although people are focused on the HR race because it is exciting, look at his pitching. With just a few years in MLB (and some of that injured) he is really coming along. Pitchers mature from just throwing the ball to pitching games and he is showing that brilliantly. The Angels suck (esp with with Trout out) but look at his pitching record. If we view him primarily as a pitcher who is also contributing truly outstanding offensive numbers, I think he is actually underappreciated relative to the others in his class (Guerrero, Tatis, Acuna, et al) as great as they may be.