2021年大谷翔平選手の活躍
Shohei Ohtani earns third win of year in latest two-way start
Jun 18, 2021/ the Japantimes
Jun 30, 2021/ the Japantimes
Jul 2, 2021/ the Japantimes
Oct 8, 2021/ the Japantimes
Nov 19, 2021/the Japantimes
Nov 20, 2021/ the Japantimes
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Shohei Ohtani earns third win of year in latest two-way start
Jun 18, 2021/ the Japantimes
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA – Shohei Ohtani earned his third win of the season after holding the Detroit Tigers to a run over six innings to help the Los Angeles Angels snap their three-game losing skid with a 7-5 win on Thursday.
Ohtani (3-1) allowed five hits, a walk and hit a batter while striking out five in a 78-pitch effort. He walked twice in three trips to the plate batting second at Angel Stadium.
“I felt really good physically considering it was after only five days rest, and I felt OK on the mound too,” said the two-way star who gave up his only run on a sixth-inning home run. “I wasn’t striking people out, but our defense helped me to get through six innings.”
Ohtani was in trouble right from the start of the game, issuing a leadoff walk and a one-out single. The Tigers put two on with no outs in the fourth with a single and a hit batsman, but a double play ended the jam as he again came away unscathed.
The Angels grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second through hustle and good base running, keyed by Kean Wong’s one-out double on a groundball to center. Luis Rengifo singled him home, went to third on a missed catch and scored on David Fletcher’s single off Matt Manning (0-1), who lost his major league debut.
The Angels defense was crucial in Ohtani keeping the Tigers off the board until Jonathan Schoop homered with one out in the sixth.
The Angels erupted for five runs in the seventh, including four on a Taylor Ward grand slam, and held onto the win despite allowing four runs in the last two innings.
Is there such a thing as too much Shohei Ohtani?
It is remarkable enough that Shohei Ohtani is the first front-line starting pitcher in generations to do double duty as an everyday player. But he is not merely filling both roles for the Los Angeles Angels, he is excelling at them. His numbers put him among the best hitters in the game and have been very solid on the pitching side.
His double act has quickly made him a favorite of fans from just about every team. This week he has brought his act to Yankee Stadium, where he homered in a 5-3 win on Monday, homered twice and had three RBIs in an 11-5 loss Tuesday, and is scheduled to start on the mound against Domingo German on Wednesday.
“That definitely sent a message,” manager Joe Maddon told reporters of Ohtani’s Monday home run, which set the tone in the victory. “He’s so easy to speak to during the game. He never gets upset. He never loses focus. He’s able to turn the page to the next one. But yeah, that was just the right way to start his trip to New York, with him hitting a home run.”
While there is no question that Ohtani has truly arrived, he is rapidly approaching uncharted territory as a starting pitcher. How he deals with the largest workload of his major league career will go a long way toward revealing whether he is truly a shoo-in for the Most Valuable Player Award.
Ohtani arrived in the majors in 2018. Though he played well right away, his pitching created a series of strict workload restrictions, and an elbow injury limited him to 10 starts. Even so, he beat out Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres of the New York Yankees to win the Rookie of the Year Award.
Ohtani had Tommy John surgery to fix his elbow and didn’t pitch at all in 2019. In the shortened 2020 season, he pitched a total of 1⅔ innings as concern grew about whether he could keep himself on the field.
Many traditionalists, disbelieving that a player could defy history, applauded the decision to treat him with care and counseled that Ohtani should pick a lane and stick to it.
But the Angels and Ohtani decided that 2021 would be the season in which he put it all together and became a complete two-way superstar. The various restrictions on his workload — the so-called Ohtani rules — were lifted and he was finally allowed to truly play every day.
So far, so good.
Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani throws during a May 11 game against the Astros in Houston. | THE NEW YORK TIMES
Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani throws during a May 11 game against the Astros in Houston. | THE NEW YORK TIMES
Going into Wednesday’s start, Ohtani is 3-1 in 11 starts while leading the Angels with a 2.58 ERA. He has thrown 59⅓ innings, which already exceeds his previous highest total in North American baseball. His most recent outing, a loss to the San Francisco Giants on June 23 in which he allowed one run in six innings while striking out nine, was the first of the season — and just the third of his major league career — in which he was allowed to surpass 100 pitches.
“I came here to do the two-way thing,” he said last month. “That’s a big motivation for me, to try to prove to everyone I’m capable of that.”
The questions are whether Ohtani can maintain this double life without it affecting his batting, where he took the major league lead in home runs in the third inning Tuesday by hitting his 27th to break a tie with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays. In his next at-bat, he hit his 28th. Entering Tuesday’s game, Ohtani’s 1.030 on-base plus slugging percentage trailed only Guerrero and Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres.
A clue to Ohtani’s future can be found in his numbers with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan.
He started pitching there in his rookie season, and by his second season, 2014, he was a full-time starter, making 20 or more starts for three straight years. In the 2017 season, his last in Japan, he was cut back to five starts as he dealt with injuries.
In Japan, he maxed out at 162⅔ innings pitched in a season. He is on pace for around 125 this season, which is short of that peak workload but would be the most he has thrown in five seasons, raising some eyebrows based on the belief that pitchers can increase their innings count only incrementally.
The reality is that injuries and workload management have always been a part of the Ohtani experience. He never played in more than 104 games of Japan’s 143-game season, chiefly because he typically did not play the field on the day before or after a start.
The lifting of the Ohtani rules has changed that. He has appeared in 74 of the Angels’ 79 games so far this year.
There are, however, still a few concessions to his unique nature. The Angels have given him six or more days of rest between the majority of his starts, rather than the four or five most starters receive. And Ohtani mostly plays designated hitter when he isn’t pitching, appearing in the outfield for only a handful of innings.
That formula has worked thus far, but his success hasn’t stopped some naysayers from suggesting that he still needs to pick a role.
“Ohtani is a special player that I think everyone is rooting for,” Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz said on ESPN. “But I think the reality is, how much longer can this not take away from each great talent that he has?”
Smoltz suggested that giving up hitting could unlock Ohtani’s pitching.
“If all he did was pitch, he’d be on the trail of a Jacob deGrom,” Smoltz said, comparing Ohtani to the New York Mets’ ace who has an eye-opening 0.69 ERA for the year.
But the Angels and Ohtani seem committed to keep him going where no player has gone in decades. There are plenty of question marks, but based on his time in Japan, if the team continues to take care, it seems like he can pull it off.
Is there such a thing as too much Shohei Ohtani?
Jun 30, 2021/ the Japantimes
It is remarkable enough that Shohei Ohtani is the first front-line starting
pitcher in generations to do double duty as an everyday player. But he
is not merely filling both roles for the Los Angeles Angels, he is excelling
at them. His numbers put him among the best hitters in the game and have
been very solid on the pitching side.
His double act has quickly made him a favorite of fans from just about every team. This week he has brought his act to Yankee Stadium, where he homered in a 5-3 win on Monday, homered twice and had three RBIs in an 11-5 loss Tuesday, and is scheduled to start on the mound against Domingo German on Wednesday.
“That definitely sent a message,” manager Joe Maddon told reporters of Ohtani’s Monday home run, which set the tone in the victory. “He’s so easy to speak to during the game. He never gets upset. He never loses focus. He’s able to turn the page to the next one. But yeah, that was just the right way to start his trip to New York, with him hitting a home run.”
While there is no question that Ohtani has truly arrived, he is rapidly approaching uncharted territory as a starting pitcher. How he deals with the largest workload of his major league career will go a long way toward revealing whether he is truly a shoo-in for the Most Valuable Player Award.
Ohtani arrived in the majors in 2018. Though he played well right away, his pitching created a series of strict workload restrictions, and an elbow injury limited him to 10 starts. Even so, he beat out Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres of the New York Yankees to win the Rookie of the Year Award.
Ohtani had Tommy John surgery to fix his elbow and didn’t pitch at all in 2019. In the shortened 2020 season, he pitched a total of 1⅔ innings as concern grew about whether he could keep himself on the field.
Many traditionalists, disbelieving that a player could defy history, applauded the decision to treat him with care and counseled that Ohtani should pick a lane and stick to it.
But the Angels and Ohtani decided that 2021 would be the season in which he put it all together and became a complete two-way superstar. The various restrictions on his workload — the so-called Ohtani rules — were lifted and he was finally allowed to truly play every day.
So far, so good.
《Picture*Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani throws during a May 11 game against
the Astros in Houston. | THE NEW YORK TIMES》
Going into Wednesday’s start, Ohtani is 3-1 in 11 starts while leading the Angels with a 2.58 ERA. He has thrown 59⅓ innings, which already exceeds his previous highest total in North American baseball. His most recent outing, a loss to the San Francisco Giants on June 23 in which he allowed one run in six innings while striking out nine, was the first of the season — and just the third of his major league career — in which he was allowed to surpass 100 pitches.
“I came here to do the two-way thing,” he said last month. “That’s a big motivation for me, to try to prove to everyone I’m capable of that.”
The questions are whether Ohtani can maintain this double life without it affecting his batting, where he took the major league lead in home runs in the third inning Tuesday by hitting his 27th to break a tie with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays. In his next at-bat, he hit his 28th. Entering Tuesday’s game, Ohtani’s 1.030 on-base plus slugging percentage trailed only Guerrero and Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres.
A clue to Ohtani’s future can be found in his numbers with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan.
He started pitching there in his rookie season, and by his second season, 2014, he was a full-time starter, making 20 or more starts for three straight years. In the 2017 season, his last in Japan, he was cut back to five starts as he dealt with injuries.
In Japan, he maxed out at 162⅔ innings pitched in a season. He is on pace for around 125 this season, which is short of that peak workload but would be the most he has thrown in five seasons, raising some eyebrows based on the belief that pitchers can increase their innings count only incrementally.
The reality is that injuries and workload management have always been a part of the Ohtani experience. He never played in more than 104 games of Japan’s 143-game season, chiefly because he typically did not play the field on the day before or after a start.
The lifting of the Ohtani rules has changed that. He has appeared in 74 of the Angels’ 79 games so far this year.
There are, however, still a few concessions to his unique nature. The Angels have given him six or more days of rest between the majority of his starts, rather than the four or five most starters receive. And Ohtani mostly plays designated hitter when he isn’t pitching, appearing in the outfield for only a handful of innings.
That formula has worked thus far, but his success hasn’t stopped some naysayers from suggesting that he still needs to pick a role.
“Ohtani is a special player that I think everyone is rooting for,” Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz said on ESPN. “But I think the reality is, how much longer can this not take away from each great talent that he has?”
Smoltz suggested that giving up hitting could unlock Ohtani’s pitching.
“If all he did was pitch, he’d be on the trail of a Jacob deGrom,” Smoltz said, comparing Ohtani to the New York Mets’ ace who has an eye-opening 0.69 ERA for the year.
But the Angels and Ohtani seem committed to keep him going where no player has gone in decades. There are plenty of question marks, but based on his time in Japan, if the team continues to take care, it seems like he can pull it off.
Shohei Ohtani first Japanese player voted to start in All-Star Game since
2010
Jul 2, 2021/The Japantimes
NEW YORK – Shohei Ohtani was named as a starter for the All-Star Game, MLB announced Thursday, making him the first Japanese player voted to start since Ichiro Suzuki made his final all-star appearance in 2010.
Voted the American League’s starting designated hitter in a fan ballot, the Los Angeles Angels’ two-way player, a first-time all-star, will be the fourth Japanese to bat in the midsummer classic after Ichiro, Hideki Matsui and Kosuke Fukudome.
He is the first Japanese designated hitter selected to an MLB All-Star team.
“I’ll do my best to put on a show that will excite the fans,” Ohtani said through the team.
Ohtani, who is also slated to be the first Japanese player to compete in the home run derby, could potentially bat and pitch in the All-Star Game at Denver’s Coors Field on July 13, when the designated hitter rule will be used.
Angels manager Joe Maddon was quoted as saying on MLB.com that he is “all for” Ohtani playing both ways in the All-Star Game, a day after he takes part in the home run hitting competition.
“He’d only pitch one inning and probably only get one at-bat. Let him hit and pitch. People want to see that. It’s good for baseball,” Maddon said.
Although AL pitchers rarely bat, due to the designated hitter rule, the Angels have frequently kept Ohtani in the batting lineup when he pitches to take advantage of his potent offense while he remains in the game.
The Angels star, who turns 27 on Monday, now has a major league-leading 28 home runs on the season to go with his 3.60 ERA after 12 pitching starts. He is playing his fourth season in the majors.
Ohtani, who played for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan, was a five-time All-Star in NPB from 2013 to 2017 before joining the Angels in 2018.
Ohtani’s teammate Mike Trout was voted in as one of three AL outfielders, his ninth career selection to the All-Star team, but is not expected to play as he recovers from a right calf strain.
Along with Ohtani, Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who is tied for second in the majors with 26 home runs, and San Diego Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. were among the nine first-time All-Stars selected by the fans to start this year’s game.
MLB canceled last year’s All-Star Game due to concerns over the coronavirus. This year’s game was moved to Denver after MLB pulled the game from Atlanta in response to Georgia’s controversial voting law.
Shohei Ohtani named Baseball Digest's MLB Player of the Year
Oct 8, 2021/ the Japantimes
New York – Los Angeles Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani was named the MLB Player of the Year by influential publication Baseball Digest and eBay on Thursday.
The 27-year-old Japanese, who is a favorite to be named American League MVP, received 16 first-place votes from a 19-member panel of baseball writers and announcers that includes former players, managers and executives.
Ohtani was chosen as the Baseball Digest Rookie of the Year in 2018. Baseball Digest is America’s longest-running baseball publication.
Ohtani is the first MLB player to dominate on the mound and at the plate since the legendary Babe Ruth almost 100 years ago.
As a starting pitcher, the right-hander was 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA in 23 starts.
In the lineup as a designated hitter, Ohtani hit 46 home runs and had 100 RBIs and 103 runs scored. He became the only player in history with at least 45 home runs, eight triples, 25 doubles and 25 stolen bases in one season.
Ohtani narrowly missed out on the home run crown, but the All-Star is widely expected to win his first AL MVP award this fall.
The AL MVP award will be voted on by the 30 members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and the results will likely be announced in November.
Angels' Shohei Ohtani named American League MVP
この記事のｽﾗｯｼｭﾘｰﾃﾞｨﾝｸﾞと解説はこちら
Nov 19, 2021/ the Japantimes/ By Jason Coskerey, Staff writer
Original Article is from Here
Shohei Ohtani’s historic 2021 season can be summed up in one home run call from a May night in Anaheim, California.
Sam Hentges, a 198-cm Cleveland Indians left-hander, threw Ohtani a 151 kph (94 mph) fastball that was right down the middle, but far above the strike zone. As Indians catcher Rene Rivera reached up for it, Ohtani swung at a nearly neck-high pitch and somehow sent the ball high into the night sky for a home run to deep right.
In the broadcast booth, Matt Vasgersian made a call that essentially summed up what anyone who watched Ohtani this year has thought at some point or another.
“Oh my goodness, oh, my goodness!” Vasgersian shouted. “Shohei Ohtani, what can’t he do?”
After a year spent captivating fans and fellow players as MLB’s first truly two-way player in nearly a century, Ohtani was named the American League MVP for the 2021 season on Thursday.
Ohtani joins Seattle Mariners great Ichiro Suzuki, the AL MVP in 2001, as the only Japanese players to win an MVP award in the majors. He’s the first pitcher to be named MVP in the AL since Justin Verlander, then with the Detroit Tigers, in 2011.
The award is voted on by 30 members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Ohtani was one of three finalists and beat out Toronto Blue Jays infielders Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Marcus Semien.
In an era when two-way players are virtually unheard of, Ohtani made it look almost like second nature.
Ohtani, who was usually in the lineup as the Angels’ designated hitter, finished third in the majors with 46 home runs and fifth with a .965 on-base plus slugging percentage while also finishing with 100 RBIs and 26 stolen bases. Ohtani broke the record for home runs by a Japanese player in a single season, surpassing Hideki Matsui’s mark of 31, which had stood since 2004.
He also finished with eight triples, making him the first player in MLB history with at least 45 home runs, 25 stolen bases and five triples in a single season.
Ohtani was 9-2 with a 3.18 ERA, 156 strikeouts and a 1.09 walks plus hits per innings pitched in 23 starts as a pitcher. He also possessed one of MLB’s most feared pitches, a splitter opponents only managed an MLB-low .087 against.
Ohtani had a strong finish on the mound, going 5-1 with a 2.84 ERA in 10 starts after the All-Star break. After walking 35 batters in 13 starts over the first half of the season, Ohtani walked just nine in the second half.
He led MLB with a 9.1 WAR, per Baseball Reference, far higher than Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler, who was second at 7.7. Semien’s 7.3 was the next best for a hitter.
Ohtani had the type of season fans have been dreaming about since he began his career in Japan with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in 2013 with the dream of being a two-way player.
Ohtani’s success in Japan, where he was the Pacific League MVP in 2016 and made that year’s Best Nine team as both pitcher and DH, gave him the leverage to convince an MLB team to let him try it in the majors when he went through the posting system during the 2017 offseason.
Ohtani was given days off before and after he pitched to compensate for the physical demands of his ambitious undertaking while with the Fighters and in his first three seasons in North America. This year, Angels manager Joe Maddon and the club removed those restrictions and unleashed Ohtani fully.
“He signed on to do exactly what he’s doing,” Maddon said during an NHK special about Ohtani that aired in October. “He came here for a specific reason: to do two things, not one. It’s his career. It’s not me, it’s him, and it’s not the Angels.
“He needed everybody to get out of the way. ‘Let me just go do what I came here for.’ And that’s what we’ve done.”
Rather than taking days off, Ohtani was a constant presence in the lineup even on days he pitched — he hit for himself in 20 of his 23 starts and played in 158 out of 162 games.
He became the first player in MLB history with at least 10 home runs and 100 strikeouts as a pitcher in the same season and the first to steal 20 bases and make at least 10 appearances on the mound in a single year.
Ohtani was also the first pitcher since Babe Ruth in 1919 to make multiple starts while also leading MLB in home runs — something he did 14 times in 2021.
“I’ve never seen a pitcher do what he’s done in my lifetime,” Barry Bonds, MLB’s all-time home run leader, said during an interview with Fuji TV last month.
He shone so brightly his exploits not only drew comparisons to Ruth, but also shined a light on some of the two-way stars from the Negro Leagues.
Ohtani was named to the All-Star team in July, becoming the first player in history to be selected at two positions — pitcher and DH.
Ohtani was the Angels’ best hitter and top pitcher. His numbers at the plate are even more impressive when considering he did it in a lineup that was without Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon for most of the season due to injuries.
He moved the needle like few players have in recent memory. He brought casual fans into the game and there were times when boos would even ring out on the road when an opposing team walked him.
He charmed fans with the way he played the game and little things he did, such as picking up trash on the field and handing off bats to the ballboys and ball girls and quickly became one of the leagues most popular players. During the Home Run Derby, even other MLB players approached him for photos.
In September, Time Magazine named him one of The 100 Most Influential People of 2021 and earlier this month he became the first recipient of MLB’s Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award, in recognition of his historic season, since 2014.
The MVP award just adds to a busy awards season for Ohtani, who also won his first Silver Slugger Award.
Shohei Ohtani's MVP award another product of bucking Japan's baseball system
Nov 20, 2021 the Japantimes
Winning the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award on Thursday was the icing on the cake for Shohei Ohtani and his remarkable 2021 season, in which he achieved career heights as a hitter, hitting 46 home runs while starting 23 games for the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani’s unanimous selection made him, after Ichiro Suzuki in 2001, the second Japanese to win an MVP in the majors. And though Japan now celebrates Ohtani and Ichiro as national heroes, both only achieved that status after once being looked down on for the different way they wanted to play pro baseball.
Ichiro won three Pacific League MVP awards in Japan and seven straight batting titles, but that was only after he was shunned for two years by his first pro manager. Ichiro’s refusal as a teenager to alter his now-iconic batting style with its pendulum front-leg swing, consigned him to spending most of his first two pro seasons in the minors.
Unlike Ichiro, a fourth-round draft pick out of high school, Ohtani was a marquee prospect with a blazing fastball and a big athletic body that attracted the attention of scouts from the U.S. No one doubted he would succeed as a pitcher, but only a bizarre chain of circumstances — and his willpower — allowed Ohtani to be the two-way sensation he is today.
Upon being named AL MVP, Ohtani said his transition to the majors had been easier because “American fans, USA baseball, were more accepting, welcoming the whole two-way idea compared to when I first started in Japan.”
Being a two-way player, however, would not have been an option if Ohtani had turned pro with a U.S. team out of high school as he originally intended, or if he had entered NPB’s draft without mentioning his overseas ambitions.
That was because no team on either side of the Pacific was going to let a teenager with such electric pitching talent bat, unless they had to.
It was Ohtani’s desire to go his own way and turn pro overseas, that forced the PL’s Nippon Ham Fighters to come up with innovative ideas to sign him and keep him in Japan.
Allowing Ohtani to be a two-way player was part of that deal, and instantly marked the cheerful and diligent youngster as different. Like Ichiro’s unusual batting stance, Ohtani’s unflagging desire to both hit and pitch was perceived as a gimmick and something of an affront to the established order of Japanese pro baseball.
Although both players were amazingly talented at playing baseball, they also needed help from managers who encouraged them to develop those talents in their own way.
Ichiro was freed to do his thing in his third pro season with the Orix BlueWave when Hall of Fame manager Akira Ogi took over. After two years of destroying minor league pitching, Ichiro became a national hero. Ohtani, meanwhile, had the support from Day 1 of former Fighters skipper Hideki Kuriyama.
In an environment that supported their unique styles rather than discouraged them, both players flourished, although Ohtani had to constantly fight the urge to conform.
Vocal former players asserted year after year that Ohtani was being selfish and could only achieve his true potential as a hitter or a pitcher by focusing on one or the other. But he saw no upside in being something he wasn’t.
In February 2017, in spring camp in Okinawa as the reigning PL MVP, Ohtani said, “If I were to focus on one or the other, there’s no guarantee I would be better at it.”
When Ohtani went to the majors, there were no guarantees his team would encourage his hitting the way the Fighters had and the way the Angels eventually did.
Some teams, no doubt, only wanted to pay lip service to his desire to hit in order to acquire him as a hard-throwing power pitcher.
Even at the 2017 baseball winter meetings, soon after Ohtani signed with his club, then-Angels manager Mike Sciosia was cautious about Ohtani’s ability to produce as a designated hitter. Ohtani had to convince him and went on to win the AL Rookie of the Year Award largely because of his offense.
Like Ichiro, Ohtani is who he is because of his physical talent, but probably
also in part to the personal drive necessary to develop a unique style
in an environment that can look askance at those who appear to be different.
