Shohei Ohtani continues to impress named Player of the Week

This has been an up & down season for Japanese two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani.  At times he has looked as the best thing since sliced bread.  Other times he has looked lost. Not to mention injury issues.

Such is the life of an MLB rookie. Overall though Shohei Ohtani has been as good as advertised.  Ohtani has shown what he can do on the mound rack up strikeout numbers that could have been record-breaking for a rookie if he could have avoided injuries.  At the plate Ohtani has hit some mammoth home runs, but he has also shown good power to the gap and tremendous speed on the bases.

All in all it has been an impressive rookie campaign for Ohtani.  Recently it was announced that Ohtani has UCL damage in his right elbow tha will most likely require surgery in the off-season that would keep him off the mound until 2020.  However, since that announcement Ohtani’s bat has been on fire and he helped lead the Angels to a 5-1 record last week on a six-game road trip.

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Ohtani hit .474 with four homers and 10 RBIs and he scored eight runs.  This was good enough to earn AL Player of the Week Honors for the second time this season.  What was most impressive was on the day he found out about his arm injury Ohtani came out that night and hit two home runs with three runs driven in.  In addition he finished the night going 4 for 4 with four runs scored.  Ohtani hit two more home runs during the week including a three-run jack against the Chicago White Sox on Friday that helped the Angels to a 5-2 victory.

With Ohtani’s elbow injury some people were worried he would not be able to play at all in 2019.  However recently it was announced that Ohtani will be able to hit in 2019 despite rehabbing his torn UCL.  With the way he has been hitting lately the Angels may want to think about getting him into the line-up every day in 2019.  A big milestone in Ohtani’s career happened last Monday when Ohtani hit his first home run off of a left-handed pitcher the Rangers Mike Minor.  Although it was only Ohtani’s first HR off of a lefty, it will be one of many he will hit eventually.

The Angels will have to manage Ohtani’s games played in general.  For now congratulations to Shohei Ohtani on winning the Player of the Week honors.