Email a copy of 'DL Notes: Howell, Beltre, Rickard, Johnson, Otani' to a friend
Loading ...
By Mark Polishuk | at
Email a copy of 'DL Notes: Howell, Beltre, Rickard, Johnson, Otani' to a friend
MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com
hide arrows scroll to top
Mikel Grady
Otani just sign with the cubs. We will take care of you.
Bartis
RunDMC
…by having Heyward run for him?
CubsFanForLife
We could always use another left fielder!
myaccount
There should be no debate. Otani is just as good of a hitter. He suffered this injury trying to make an offensive play. It happens. Really, the debate should be whether or not he should give 100% on the basepaths knowing his importance. I know many will disagree but I’m all about maximizing his value. Let the guy hit. If he were strictly a hitter there wouldn’t even be a discussion.
chesteraarthur
He’s not “just as good” of a hitter and that’s why this IS a discussion.
thegreatcerealfamine
Curious..how do you know about his hitting?
chesteraarthur
minorleagueball.com/2016/6/14/11929554/shohei-otan…
fangraphs.com/blogs/how-good-is-shohei-otani/
thegreatcerealfamine
Just needs to get here.
davidcoonce74
Lots of American scouts doubt he’s a great hitter. Keith Law of ESPN also chimed in on this just the other day, as well as the above links. His season in 2016 was truly outstanding, but was also an outlier in his brief career and certainly lots of Japanes hitting stats don’t translate as well here. Add to that the injury risk and it’s reasonable that most teams see him as a pitcher-first guy that they might let pinch-hit or DH occasionally.
thegreatcerealfamine
davidcoonce..the point I was trying to make was their league doesn’t necessarily translate to MLB.
chesteraarthur
How is what you said supposed to be interpreted as making that point?
The NBP stats almost always translate to be worse than what they would be in MLB and scouts are still able to see what a player’s tools look like. Just because the NBP isn’t the MLB does not mean that people don’t have opinions on how they will play.
If you’re gonna take the “it doesn’t translate” stance, then I suppose you do not care about amateur scouting or minor league either, since those don’t necessarily translate to mlb success.
davidcoonce74
The point I was trying to make is that of the people who have actually scouted Otani – you know, scouts – none of them think he’s as good a hitter as people who just look at the stat line do. Since I’m not a scout, I trust their opinions more than the statistics. The part about statistics not translating is just an extension of that idea – minor league stats don’t translate directly to major league stats either, which is why teams have scouts and why you often read ffrom scouts to “avoid scouting the stat line”
rocky7
Do us all a favor, and scout or offer your opinions on the west coast teams like your home town Padres rather than the rest of the league. Your opinions on all else you don’t know don’t make much sense.
jimmertee
I hope Howell gets better, but when the Jays signed him, the question for me was why? my opinion is that he cannot get out Al East hitters in small ball parks. Move him to the 60 day DL and trade a boatload of prospects for an allstar setup guy,.
RiverCatsFilms
Giants need an LF and a reliever