“Otani is a ‘lovely’ player in Major League Baseball”
LA Dodgers Shohei Ohtani started the home showdown with the Cleveland Guardians of the 2024 Major League Baseball at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California on the 7th (Korea time) and scored two hits (one home run) and one RBI and one run from four times at bat.
In a showdown with the Arizona Diamondbacks on the 31st of last month, Ohtani secured his 43rd home run and steal of the season, surpassing the previous record of 42 home runs and 46 steals held by “A-ROD” Alex Rodriguez, and achieving the first 43 home runs and 43 steals in Major League history. Both home runs and stolen bases produced afterwards naturally lead to a new history.
Ohtani hit his 44th home run the next day, and in a showdown with Arizona on the 3rd, he grabbed as many as three stolen bases, striding toward the first 50-50 feat in major league history. Then, Ohtani fired a missile again in five games. It was the third at-bat in the bottom of the sixth inning that Ohtani’s bat, which struck out in the first at-bat and the second at-bat, exploded.
After watching the first pitch against Cleveland starter Matthew Boyd at the bottom of the sixth inning when his team was losing 0-2, Ohtani didn’t miss the 88.8-mile sinker on the second pitch when the sinker rushed to the center of the strike zone. Ohtani’s powerful hit extended at a whopping 111.2 miles (179 kilometers), and after flying 413 feet (125.8 meters), he hit a solo home run over the fence. With the homer, Ohtani hit 45 homers to 45 steals.
Ohtani has 45 homers and 46 steals at the end of the game on Sunday. Arithmetically, Ohtani currently has a pace of 51.7 homers and 52.9 steals. Even now, Ohtani’s homers and stolen bases are all linked to new major league records, but 45-45 and 50-50 have completely different feelings, and if the current trend is maintained, he can make achievements that no one in the world has achieved. Ohtani still has 21 games to play, and he only needs five homers and four steals.
Every moment is connected with the history of Major League Baseball, but we cannot guarantee that Ohtani will be the MVP of this year’s regular season. This is because there has never been a designated hitter in the history of Major League Baseball in more than 100 years. The biggest reason why Ohtani has been named MVP twice so far is that he has been on the mound. In the 2021 season when he acquired his first MVP, he recorded 9 wins, 2 losses and a 3.18 ERA, and last year he recorded 10 wins, 5 losses and a 3.14 ERA. However, he will not take the mound this year due to the aftermath of elbow surgery.
Now, all media are paying attention to Ohtani’s 50-50 record, but after the regular season schedule is over, controversy is expected to arise over Ohtani’s winning the MVP title. There is a high possibility that there will be a conflict between the fact that Ohtani, who did not defend but made the first major league history, should be given MVP and that the designated hitter cannot be given MVP. As a result, even though Ohtani was performing tremendously until the middle of this season, there were many predictions that Philadelphia Phillies Bryce Harper would hold the National League MVP title.
Among them, David Otis, the legendary player of the Major League, spoke out. Otis made his debut with the Minnesota Twins in 1997 and joined the Boston Red Sox in 2003 before playing until the 2016 season. Otis played in 2,408 games, recording 2472 hits, 541 homers, 1768 RBIs, 1419 runs batted in with 0.286 OPS of 0.932. Notably, he has won three World Series titles (2004, 2007, 2013), including 10 All-Star titles.
He was named the MVP of the American League Championship Series in 2004 and the MVP of the World Series in 2013, as well as the Silver Slugger in the seventh inning (2004–2007, 2011, 2013, 2016), the home run king in the first inning (2006), and the RBI king in the third inning (2005, 2006, 2016), and was inducted into the Hall of Fame based on 77.9% of the vote in 2022. He was a designated hitter who represented Major League Baseball, comparable to the “legend of designated hitter” Edgar Martinez. This Otis expressed his thoughts on Ohtani’s MVP.
Hector Gomez of the Dominican Republic’s “Z101 Digital” was interviewed by Otis on the 6th, who opposed Ohtani’s MVP award. Otis also ranked first in the American League with 54 home runs, 137 RBIs and 119 walks in 2006, and he flew up with a batting average of 0.287 OPS of 1.049. “The Major League has always made excuses for not giving MVP because I’m a designated hitter. I’ll have to see where the Major League will go this year,” he said. “Ohtani is a ‘lovely’ player in the Major League, so I’ll see what happens.”
With the pros and cons of Ohtani’s MVP likely to intensify in the future, it remains to be seen who will win the honor of this year’s National League MVP. 메이저놀이터