This is an intriguing bit of 2020 that's probably gonna get lost in the shuffle due to ensuing chaos.
Shohei Ohtani will be back to full two-way capacity this year, starting AND DHing, giving Angels fans a taste of both sides of his prowess, but this is also a year after several MLB teams have produced their own two-way players to combat the initial novelty of Ohtani. If George Steinbrenner were still the owner of the Yankees, he would have rushed a single-A pitcher with a few at-bats into the roster in a heartbeat.
The thing is, despite a lot of the 'we've got a guy too' mentality that produced people like Jared Walsh, Brendan McKay, Kaleb Cowart and Anthony Gose, the concept of a raking pitcher goes back to Micah Owings in Arizona being called in to pinch hit, and eventually Michael Lorenzen being kept in games just to face relievers at the plate. Also, because someone will get mad at me if I don't mention him, Babe Ruth. There.
While a lot of these guys, especially McKay, do resemble copycat rivals to Ohtani, their work is still kind of valid, especially considering that in 2020, 'two-way player' was ratified by the MLB as an official positional distinction.
Now, is Ohtani still the best two-way player in the bigs? Heck yes. It'll be great to see him back on the mound again this year, in addition to his usual 20 homers or whatever. But the lack of pitching numbers from Ohtani in 2019 has made it difficult to gauge whether he's as impressive a two-way player as Michael Lorenzen, who had a phenomenal 2019 season both at the plate and on the mound. If any season deserved a Reds-Angels matchup, it would be this one, which is why I'm sad that most schedules have been localized rather than spread out all over the league.
I genuinely think Ohtani will have a strong season, and I also think the pundits are vastly underestimating the Angels, but I am looking more forward to 2021 when we can actually see a full picture of Ohtani's two-way stuff.
Coming Tomorrow- A guy who nearly ended up on the Angels, but stayed on his side of LA and will reap the benefits this year.
I sure hope he does well as he has a lot of talent and could be really exciting to watch.
ReplyDeleteI'm so torn. I want to root for him and see him play well... but at the same time his success will most likely not be helpful to my beloved Athletics. In a perfect scenario... he has an MVP caliber season, but his teammates totally bomb. The bad thing is I like Rendon and Simmons too. Plus who doesn't admire legends like Pujols and Trout. Ugh. I wish I could just hate these guys. It'd make things simpler for me.
ReplyDeleteLove seeing the two way players do well. Hope to see more of them this year. That ohtani leaf card is cool.
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