Shohei Ohtani: What Baseball America survey did get right about ShoTime

Baseball America surveyed managers, scouts, and executives on how good MLB players and Managers are at a variety of different categories.

The LA Angels did see some representation there, however Shohei Ohtani was totally snubbed from the ‘Best Hitter’ category. He wasn’t even listed in the top three.

While that showed me that these rankings are totally worthless, they did get a few things right.

Shohei Ohtani represented the LA Angels at the top of three categories in the Baseball America survey on Monday.

Shohei Ohtani represented the LA Angels at No. 1 in each of the ‘Best Power’ category, the ‘Fastest Baserunner’ category, and the ‘Most Exciting Player’ category.

Well, they certainly got those three right. His 20 stolen bases don’t lead the Majors, but has him in the top nine. Nobody doubts his speed, and it’s been very visible through how fast he is around the bases, and how it’s aided him in bunting for base hits this season.

It’s absolutely remarkable that he’s still the fastest baserunner in the league despite having the highest workload in the Majors by far. It’s what makes him the most exciting player in the league.

Very few people in the world were alive the last time somebody was doing what Ohtani was doing as far as being as effective as he is as both a hitter and pitcher.

He’s having the greatest season of all time. He is the team’s Ace on the mound with a 3.00 ERA and an 8-1 record. He’s also the best hitter in the game with a Major League-leading 42 home runs and a .989 OPS.

Ohtani’s peers embarrassingly didn’t rank him as the top hitter in the game, but they at least did rank him as the best power hitter in baseball. It’s not just the OPS, or the MLB-leading 42 bombs. It’s also the AL-leading .626 slugging percentage.

The numbers don’t lie, and he certainly has the most power in the Bigs. He’s already at 90 RBI.

There’s no question there, and it was also nice to see him be ranked second in the ‘Best Changeup’ category, where he certainly deserves to be. His changeup’s nasty, and almost as filthy as his splitter.

His slider’s coming along too, and it all goes to show that Shohei hasn’t even come close to reaching his potential as a pitcher.

Maybe next year we’ll see him in the ‘Best Pitcher’ category. I can’t predict the future, but if he’s not leading the way for ‘Best Hitter’ again, these lists should never get any attention ever again.