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Shohei Otani, the next Babe Ruth?

Bucky

Bucky

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This guy will be a franchise-changer for the team he chooses to sign.

A pitcher that can throw 100 mph and bat left-handed with power?

Any team that gets him will be getting a steal due to the new rules. The Yankees have to be the favorites due to their brand value and the market they play in.
 
Good luck with that. The Japanese are famous for wearing out young arms. He will last a fears years pitching just like 90% of them that come over to the big show.
 
RetiredUSN said:
Good luck with that. The Japanese are famous for wearing out young arms. He will last a fears years pitching just like 90% of them that come over to the big show.
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But he can hit.
 
There will only be one Babe Ruth.
 
RetiredUSN said:
That doesn't make him a Babe Ruth either.

Ruth was a life long premier batter.

Ruth had 94 wins and 46 losses with a 2.28 ERA

There will never be another Ruth.
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He's going to be a starting pitcher and starting hitter.

What is certain is that he is a physical freak of nature, 6 feet 4 with massive shoulders and long limbs. As a right-handed pitcher, he clocked the Japanese league’s fastest-ever pitch at 102.5 mph last year. As a left-handed batter, has smashed 500-foot home runs. And he consistently covers the 90 feet between the batter’s box and first base between 3.8 and 4.0 seconds. (Ichiro Suzuki in his prime was only slightly faster, and he was a slap hitter.)
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http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dodgers-ohtani-20170912-story.html

You sandwich him between Judge and Sanchez... wow.
 
Bucky said:
This guy will be a franchise-changer for the team he chooses to sign.

A pitcher that can throw 100 mph and bat left-handed with power?

Any team that gets him will be getting a steal due to the new rules. The Yankees have to be the favorites due to their brand value and the market they play in.
Click to expand...

Meh. We don't know what is important to him. He's not talking.
 
Top Cat said:
Meh. We don't know what is important to him. He's not talking.
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It seems he doesn't care as much about money but winning and establishing a legacy.
 
Top Cat said:
And you this how?
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Purely speculation but the fact he's coming out this soon and turning down a lot of upfront money shows me something.

He's trying to build his brand early. He can only do that in NY. Nobody knows who Mike Trout is and he plays in LA.
 
Bucky said:
Purely speculation
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So you pulled it from the dark place.





He's trying to build his brand early. He can only do that in NY. Nobody knows who Mike Trout is and he plays in LA.
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One of your better ones. The stupidity of this comment is humorous.
 
Will he be another Clint Hartung?
The 1947 Rookie of the Year was not supposed to be Jackie Robinson, before the year
even began all the sportswriters could talk about was Clint Hartung!

'The hype for Hartung started long before he arrived for spring training in 1947. He was the savior who would lead the Giants out of the wilderness
of last place toward the promised pennant. New York Daily News columnist Bill Gallo, wrote, “In all my time in sports, I had never seen a ballplayer
so heralded before he had played game one in the major leagues. Not DiMaggio... not Mantle... not Williams nor A-Rod or any of them. … (T)his guy,
at first look, was Shoeless Joe Jackson, Ruth and Bob Feller all rolled up into one.'


'Hartung played on military teams while serving in the Air Corps. In 1946 he reportedly went 25-0 as a pitcher and hit .567 for the
Hickam Field Bombers, based in Pearl Harbor. The Giants offered him a $35,000 bonus to sign after World War II.
The hype before spring training was so great that Giants publicist Schumacher told the press corps in Phoenix, “Hartung's a sucker if he ever shows up.
He should go straight to Cooperstown.”Hartung contributed to the hype by having a great spring. He homered in his first at-bat in an intrasquad
game, and smacked other long drives against major-league opposition.'

In his Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James created an unofficial award in Hartung’s honor, describing the most overhyped rookie of
each decade of baseball history as the winner of the Clint Hartung Award. This japanese phenom because of the publicity is definitely
a candidate for the Hartung Award.
 
If this guy gets a huge b'zillion $ contract and he can pitch like they say he can NO ONE will allow him to also be an everyday position player. The risk of him getting hurt and them losing a top pitcher is too great. Even in today's game pitching trumps hitting, if this guy is an ace he'll just pitch and maybe pitch hit once in awhile. No way will be also be an everyday player.

And I would guess he'll probably go to a West Coast team.
 
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