The Angels stink, that’s not news. No matter how hard they try, they just can’t seem to get out of their own way. Joe Madden shaving his head, so he could show off a mohawk to his team, hours before being fired and the team never seeing the haircut is a perfect analogy for the Angels as a whole. They have two fun, awesome things to show off (Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani) but their season is over before they get a chance to let them loose. All that being said we still need to acknowledge and appreciate every time Ohtani takes the field
Over the past two days Ohtani has done the unimaginable. On Tuesday, he hit 2 home runs and drove in a career high 8 RBI’s and then on Wednesday he fired 8 shutout innings against the Royals with a career high 13 strikeouts.
If your favorite player were to hit 2 home runs in a game, you would be ecstatic. Aaron Judge is must see baseball because he is doing it consistently this year. On the other hand, if the ace of your favorite team went 8 innings and struck out 13 you would be plotting how to insert him into the Cy Young race. The same player just did that in back to back games.
If you have some free time, go check out Ohtani’s Baseball Savant page. His percentile rankings are unheard of.
90%+ percentile in Avg Exit Velo, Max Exit Velo, xwOBA, Barrel% and xSLG as a hitter. While also being 85%+ percentile in xERA, Whiff%, K%, Fastball Velo and xwOBA as a pitcher. Elite metrics at premium positions and he continues to get better.
He may not win the MVP this season because of the lack of success for the Angels (We could just call this “The Mike Trout”) but he is must see TV every time he steps in the box or takes the mound. Appreciate Shohei Ohtani because odds are we will never see anything like this again.
