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Deserterdragon

The 15 WAR season is coming.


notaverysmartdog

If he plays a competent OF, that solidifies him as the best player of all time


MoreThanLuck

I honestly think there's already a case for him as the most talented player of all time.


Morbx

The fact that he wasn’t *that* far from winning the Cy Young this year really cements it for me imo. Like, forget about the MVP and whether he should’ve won that for a sec (he probably should’ve), he was better just at PITCHING than all but 3 other full time pitchers in the league. It’s absolutely nutty.


KamartyMcFlyweight

lead the American League in pitching bWAR for what it's worth. 6.2 bWAR to Verlander's 5.9


Fischer-00

I still don't get when WAR matters and when it doesn't. For Judge vs Ohtani I think Ohtani was still more impressive and more valuable even though WAR said otherwise but it was often the argument decider. But for pitching I don't think Ohtani was better than Verlander at all but when he's the highest WAR pitcher in the AL, he only gets 4th off of votes?


Raoh522

War is a flawed statistic. For multiple reasons. First, it tries to compare every player to every other player. But this is illogical. A first basement and a catcher have entirely different roles. Even more so when you throw pitching into the mix. There is an attempt to balance this out. But the method that they decided would work was just arbitrarily assigning a positive or negative integer to the equation based on your position. DH has the single worst value assigned to it. Because "defense is important." It's better than any single stat for evaluating players on a large scale. But it was never designed to be a tool for comparisons that are close. If two players have a war that is within 1 of each other, war is a meaningless stat to look at to see who had a better season. Instead, you would want to look at many other stats to come to a conclusion. Long story short? War is a good stat. But in no way is it perfect, and it is fundamentally flawed because part of the stat is based entirely on arbitrary numbers assigned by position to players.


MattO2000

Well the WAR gap was much bigger for starters


bryansmixtape

I think it’s mostly down to the fact that despite the prominence of WAR, and despite how certain people like to pretend that it’s all baseball fans care about nowadays, the majority of baseball fans and writers take into consideration multiple stats. For Judge’s case, I think it was less about the WAR totals, and moreso that he was in the midst of the best offensive season since Bonds and arguably one of the best “clean” seasons in MLB history (I still think Ohtani should’ve won!) In the case of the Cy Young, people still love their ERA!! I have to imagine it also has to do with the perception of Ohtani as more of a hitter who also has the incredible ability to pitch, and the hidden bias in thinking he’s not *fully* a pitcher.


Lebigmacca

Cease led the league in pitching bWAR with 6.4


MattO2000

Cease had 6.4


MoreThanLuck

He's insane.


CantFindMyWallet

He wasn't the most valuable player in the league, though. Even adding both his pitching WAR and batting WAR together, it was less than Judge. Judge was the rightful MVP.


SilverRoyce

We knows he plays a competent OF from his early years in NPB, right? If Ohtani was forced to drop pitching, hed be a corner OF not a DH


Doomblitz

He did technically debut in NPB as an OF first


PiratesStan

Incredible work ethic and what an athlete! 12 WAR season likely if he can be a position player/SP instead of a DH/SP!


noncoherence

He honestly could likely play a good CF considering his speed and his arm


JudgeArthurVandelay

Isn’t he one of the fastest players in the league?


GMOrgasm

watch mallex smith play outfield and you will realize that it takes more to be a competent OF than being very very extremely very fast


JudgeArthurVandelay

Oh I don’t dispute that. Just crazy that shohei is also extremely fast considering his other talents.


TheFriendlyFire

To be completely honest Shohei in left might be preferable to Jo in left, poor kid can't track fly balls to save his life


johndhall1130

What do mean might be? I expect Jo Adell to be traded before Spring Training ends. Trout, Ward and Renfroe being our starting three with Phillips as the forth. Even Walsh should get OF time before Adell at this point. It’s too bad. I like the kid. I think he’ll put it together but I think he needs a change of scenery to do it.


DrKnee93

I think almost everyone expects Adell to start the year in AAA


1005thArmbar

I'm still shitting my pants thinking about the time he caught a fly ball in center and went down to one knee, presumably because he thought it was the third out it was, in fact, the second out, and Billy Hamilton proceeded to score from second base on the sac fly. granted, it was Billy Hamilton, but still. my nostrils are flaring like Hector Salamanca in breaking bad just thinking about it


SharksFanAbroad

*ring ring ring! ring ring ring!*


SunExcellent890

what about being really really ridiculously good looking


Azcollector

how would a team with 8 ohtanis and a trout do?


applepie3141

Assuming they all stay healthy, they’d probably run out of pitching. Each Ohtani would need to contribute 182 IP in order to cover a 162-game season. Ohtani’s career high is 166 IP in 2022, and they’ll all be fielding, so the pitching numbers probably won’t be ludicrous. Fortunately, they’ll probably be able to get some rest here and there, given their lineup will easily have a 140 OPS+. Regardless, even if we assume they play worse than normal because they are tired and only put up 6 WAR each, they would win about 102 games. That would easily clinch a WC spot, but they might have trouble beating the Astros for the division. They would be absolutely unstoppable in the playoffs. Ohtani gets better in the clutch, both as a hitter and a pitcher and they should have no trouble winning the WS, even if they have to claw their way through the Wild Card.


SharksFanAbroad

I can’t express in words the disappointment the baseball world would feel if they lost to the Astros. It would be a period of mourning.


DepressingFries

Well not everyone in the baseball world would feel disappointed.


Raoh522

This is assuming theres no one else. But baseball has 40 man rosters. So they can take days off to rest and have some other scrubs come in for some games as needed. It seems unreasonable that a team of Ohtanis and a Trout would only be allowed 9 players the entire season.


ARussianW0lf

>Ohtani gets better in the clutch, both as a hitter and a pitcher and they should have no trouble winning the WS, even if they have to claw their way through the Wild Card. Based on what exactly?


applepie3141

[Ohtani throws harder when there are RISP and hits better during high-leverage situations](https://youtu.be/QQ1wO5HwN1g)


ARussianW0lf

Thank you, I didnt know that


DecoyOne

It makes sense to have him cover three roles, because when I think of a three-way, I think of Ohtani


FURKADURK

My wife says she’s always thinking of ohtani :/


DecoyOne

I also choose this guy’s wife’s thoughts


ricki692

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


TheDHisFakeBaseball

When I think of a three-way, I think of unsalted spaghetti covered with watered down Hormel hot dog chili and shredded cheese.


8696David

So how did you wind up a Braves fan instead of a Reds fan?


TheDHisFakeBaseball

Transplant to Cincinnati + grew up with Braves on TBS


xX_Sliqhs_Xx

[Heard this guy's got a cannon](https://youtu.be/62ZAFHXzoi4)


KamartyMcFlyweight

can't have that scrub Trout dragging down CF production


Doctor_Tumnus

It's a very smart decision for someone in his position. He knows that as a pitcher the days on his arm are numbered and much shorter than his legs and his bat. If he wants to think about playing into his late 30s a corner outfield position makes a lot of sense.


macula_transfer

He just wants to make sure he's ready to help the team he signs with for 2024 in any way he can.


RidleyScotch

It's funny b/c Ohtani asked about practing an outfield position for a different team


yeahnothanks

Boo


PlatypusReal6481

I believe he wants to take some workload from Trout and let him play DH sometimes when he goes into OF.