Shohei Ohtani

[Chilidog]

if you don’t know who he is, you will soon.

that young man is singlehandedly reviving the sport of baseball.

Tuesday, at the plate for the Los Angeles, he went 3 for 4 with two homers and 8 RBIs.

Wednesday, on the mound for the Angels, he pitched 8 scoreless innings, held the royals to two hits and struck out 13.

that’s unreal.

[RTH10260]

that's all Greek to me

[humblescribe]

Okay, batters in baseball generally have four or five plate appearances per game to face the opposing team's pitcher. Batters start at home plate. There are three bases (first, second, and third) that players must touch in order before returning to home plate and scoring a run (a point in other games.) If there are one or more runners on base, and the current batter hits the ball and one or more can advance to the next base or bases and make it back to home plate, the batter is credited with a run batted in (RBI). A batter also gets an RBI for himself if he hits the ball out of the park for a home run.

The abbreviated method to explain how a batter performed in a game is to say how many safe hits he made for his times at bat. So, in this case, Ohtani had four at-bats, and he managed three hits in those four at-bats, and two of them were home runs. We don't know what his third hit was--cudda been a single (reaching first) or a double (reaching second) or a triple (reaching third).

All four of hit at bats resulted in him having six runners already on base score a run, plus he scored two runs himself because of his two home runs, so 6+2 = 8 RBI. (If you want to sound cool, just say ribbies.)

Three hits in four at-bats = .750 success rate. Good batters will bat .300+ over a season, so a 3 for 4 game is pretty good.

A crude analogy would be for a basketball player to sink 24/32 shots from the field plus another eight assists to his teammates.

On the pitching side, he pitched eight of the nine innings and did not allow a run to score. Thirteen of the opposing batters did not hit the ball and force the defense to catch it or pick it up; rather, they were sent packing due to either missing the ball when they swung the bat or watched a perfectly good pitch go by. Those are called strikes, and if you get three of them, you sit down until next time.

What is tricky for non-baseball people to understand about this game is the fact that unlike other sports with objects, it is the player who scores in baseball, not the object. Moreover, in baseball, the defense controls the object, not the offense.

[keith]

(brief description of baseball, sort of)

What was left out of that description was that in baseball especially at the highest level, pitchers are generally not considered 'good' hitters. Because of this 'fact' a rule has been introduced to provide for a 'designated hitter' - teams can identify a poor hitting player (usually, but not necessarily the pitcher) and appoint another player (who does not play in the defensive field) to bat for that poor hitter. The American League has had the designated hitter for almost 50 years, the National League introduced it this year.

Ohtani is the exception - an excellent pitcher who is also a very competent batter.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Thank you for the RBI explanation.

[Chilidog]

(brief description of baseball, sort of)

What was left out of that description was that in baseball especially at the highest level, pitchers are generally not considered 'good' hitters. Because of this 'fact' a rule has been introduced to provide for a 'designated hitter' - teams can identify a poor hitting player (usually, but not necessarily the pitcher) and appoint another player (who does not play in the defensive field) to bat for that poor hitter. The American League has had the designated hitter for almost 50 years, the National League introduced it this year.

Ohtani is the exception - an excellent pitcher who is also a very competent batter.

too bad he plays for the Angels. (the rest of the team is mediocre at best).

[humblescribe]

(brief description of baseball, sort of)

What was left out of that description was that in baseball especially at the highest level, pitchers are generally not considered 'good' hitters. Because of this 'fact' a rule has been introduced to provide for a 'designated hitter' - teams can identify a poor hitting player (usually, but not necessarily the pitcher) and appoint another player (who does not play in the defensive field) to bat for that poor hitter. The American League has had the designated hitter for almost 50 years, the National League introduced it this year.

Ohtani is the exception - an excellent pitcher who is also a very competent batter.

The designated hitter rule per rule 6.10(b) of the Official Rules of Major League Baseball:

(b) The Designated Hitter Rule provides as follows:

(1) A hitter may be designated to bat for the starting pitcher and all subsequent
pitchers in any game without otherwise affecting the status of the pitcher(s) in
the game. A Designated Hitter for the pitcher, if any, must be selected prior to
the game and must be included in the lineup cards presented to the Umpire-in-
Chief. If a manager lists 10 players in his team’s lineup card, but fails to
indicate one as the Designated Hitter, and an umpire or either manager (or
designee of either manager who presents his team’s lineup card) notices the
error before the umpire-in-chief calls “Play” to start the game, the umpire-
in-chief shall direct the manager who had made the omission to designate
which of the nine players, other than the pitcher, will be the Designated
Hitter.

So, the Angels could not have Ohtani bat as the starting pitcher and also use the designated hitter for a weak-hitting but Gold Glove fielder. The designated hitter bats for the pitcher, period.

In addition, if the designated hitter is forced to take up a defensive position (say left field), the team loses the designated hitter for the rest of the game, and the pitcher is inserted into the batting lineup in the spot that was taken by the position player that was removed from the game. Too, also, once a team starts a game without a designated hitter (say, Ohtani starts the game as pitcher and bats sixth) the designated hitter is not available at all, even if Ohtani is lit up like a Christmas tree and is pulled after 2 2/3 innings.

I'm sure that this rule applies to minor league baseball and to college baseball. There may be exceptions for high school baseball and women's softball.

[keith]

So, the Angels could not have Ohtani bat as the starting pitcher and also use the designated hitter for a weak-hitting but Gold Glove fielder. The designated hitter bats for the pitcher, period.

Thank you for the correction. I was not aware it was pitcher only.

[John Thomas8]

Kinda sad he's destined for TJ surgery and can't stay healthy enough to even DH the rest of the season.