Whose watching Ohtani's one inning tonight?

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by bk400

I took a quick look at Ohtani's stats in 2024 and in 2025, season to date. So far this year, he's hitting .240 with OPS of .824 with RISP, compared with .283 and an OPS of .868 last year. So he isn't quite as good with runners in scoring position this year.

But he's also only had 50 ABs with RISP this season so far, which is roughly 30% less than what he probably had last year (he had 145 ABs with RISP for the full season last year).

So I think it is a combination of both issues -- he's less efficient himself, and the bottom of the order hasn't been getting on base as much.

Another anomaly is that Ohtani scored 134 runs last year, but is on pace this year to score 154. So someone is knocking him in.

It's really a testament to the Dodgers lineup, he had that many RBI's.

Ohtani had 177 Plate appearances with RISP. He led off 90 games last year, and batted 2nd for 69 games.

Judge batted 3rd, all year last year, and only had 178 Plate appearance with RISP.

With Soto gone, they have Judge moving up to the #2 spot, about half the games this year.

By the way, Judge is a career .302 AVG, .449 OBP, with Runners in scoring position.

Ohtani, for his career is not quite at that level, but pretty close.

I'd have Ohtani batting 1 or 2 in the order, anytime possible, just to take advantage of his base-running. Ultimately, you want OBP machines like Ohtani and Judge to get as many at bats as possible. Runs are just as important as RBI's.