Shohei Ohtani is the most talented baseball player on the planet and here’s why…
In an interview on UNINTERRUPTED, former Yankee ace, C.C Sabathia claimed Shohei Ohtani, “The best baseball player (he has) ever seen”. At first glance, this could be looked at as an outrageous claim but digging deeper, C.C may be onto something.
Baseball is one of the most difficult sports to succeed in and rarely do you have players who are 2-way players, meaning they pitch and hit. 25-year-old Shohei Ohtani is one of the pioneers in two-way players and became the first player since Babe Ruth (!) to pitch 10 games in a season and hit over 20 home runs.
As a 23-year-old rookie in the MLB, Ohtani took the world by storm with his incredible rookie season that certainly lived up to the hype. He had a respectable .285 Batting Average with slash lines of .285/.361/.561.
As well as being considered an above-average hitter, Ohtani is also lethal on the pitching rubber. In 10 starts in 2018, Ohtani went 4-2 with a 3.31 ERA, a WHIP of 1.16. All the expectations coming from the fans had to take a toll on Ohtani, but he didn’t fall short of somehow exceeding them.
He would ultimatley be named the AL Rookie of the Year at the end of the 2018 season. Ohtani’s “claim to fame” is that he can throw 100 MPH and hit 500 ft home runs.
Unfortunately, it was announced in September of 2018 that Ohtani would need Tommy John Surgery which ended his tenure on the rubber for the 2019 season. Although his slugging percentage and his home runs dipped, Ohtani still had a very productive 2019 campaign batting an almost identical .286 Batting Average
In all aspects of the game, Shohei Ohtani has excelled both on the mound and at the plate. It will be fascinating to see the rest of Shohei’s career, especially with a healthy arm in 2020.
Photo Credit: Yahoo! Finance
