Shohei Ohtani might be having the greatest MLB season of all-time and still miss the playoffs
This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Charles Curtis.
It happened again, folks.
We got ourselves a Tungsten Arm O’Doyle game on Thursday in which he threw for four scoreless innings, left due to cramping in his hand, hit a home run, stole a base … and the Los Angeles Angels lost to the Seattle Mariners.
Yep. Bad. Especially when you consider that the Angels have made a ton of trades in the hopes of getting Ohtani to the postseason.
After Ohtani hit his 40th dinger of the season, I wondered: Is he having the greatest season in MLB history? The stats tell one tale — he leads the league in WAR right now at 8.7, and the highest single-season WAR in this century is Barry Bonds’ 11.9 in his 73-homer 2001. So maybe Ohtani nearly gets there?
But the eye test with some other stats really tells the tale: He leads the majors in home runs, triples, slugging, OPS, OPS+, and total bases. He’s been walked an AL-leading 68 times and leads the American League in on-base percentage. He’s going to best last year’s hitting numbers AND he’s hitting .307 after finishing last year at .273.
Pitching? Not quite as good as last year (3.43 ERA to his 2.33 ERA last year). He does lead the entire league in hits allowed per nine innings, which is amazing.
Put that all together and yes, I’d say it: Greatest individual season in baseball history.
AND THE TEAM HE’S ON MIGHT MISS THE POSTSEASON!!!!
Fine, I’ll give it until September. The trades might take that long to make an impact. But as of right now? NOT GOOD.
Quick Hits: Football! … Best NBA contracts of the offseason … and more.
— The Hall of Fame Game between the Jets and Browns kicked off the NFL preseason, and we got Aaron Rodgers darkness memes, soon-to-be official Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware singing the national anthem and, oh yeah, they played a game.
— A look at the eight best contracts of 2023 NBA free agency, including Austin Reaves’ deal.
— The five best shark movies of all time. Yes, Jaws is in there.