Some Baseball: The Shohei Ohtani Trade That Never Happens And, Of Course, A “Physical” For My Dodgers.
My first Baseball Post Since 2021, Im In Awe. Some Stats Have Change Since I Started This Writing A Few Days Ago.
Taking The Mantle As The Best Player On Baseball And One Of The few Omega Level Athletes On Earth Last Year, One Season Didn't Seem To Satisfy Shohei Ohtani. The Japanese Dynamo, Ace Pitcher Heavy Hitter In The Home Run Game, Entered The Final Year Of His Contract With The Spirit Of Izanagi(The Japanese god) At The Heels Of Othani, Powering Him Like A Storm Set To Takeover The MLB. Thus Far, At The Titular Mid Point Of The Season, Othani Has Home Run Lead With His Keen On 60 Or More Bombs. From Rookie Year, One 2018 Ago, Othani Earned The Title Of The Impossible Mystery A Pitching Savant With The Swing Of David, But He's No Mystery. Some Guys Play The Game At A Different Level Than Others. Ohtani Has Already Eclipsed $65 Million In Off Field Earnings While Still On A "Rookie" Deal He Signed Years Back. This Off-Season Othani Will Most Likely Reset The MLB Contract Record For Salary, $36-$39 Million Per Annum. Ohtani Somehow Surged Past The Early Injury Bug, A Couple Of Elbow Injuries, And A Knee That Muffled His Earlier Attempts To Take Off With The Acknowledgement As The Shows's Greatest Talent. Ohtani Still Won Rookie Of The Year Unquestionably. He Followed That Award With An MVP A Year, And Now He's On Base To Double Up With Another MVP in Sight This Year.
You Know A Rare Athlete When He's The Talking Point Of The League Despite His Lack Of Team Success.
Like Every Other Sport, Baseball is Not Shy About His Talnets And Sharing What Othani Excels At With The Baseball World. When You're The Sports Most Inconspicuous Talent, What Else Do You Need? Shohei Needs A Winning Market And A-Team. How The Angels Brass Have Failed To Build A Winner Around The Osmium Level Talent Baffles Many in Team Taking The Role Of Single Entity Imbued With A World Of Talent Only Matters On The Highlight Reel and The Headlines During The Summer(For Baseball). In Sports, The Acknowledged As The Best Means Nothing If His Skill Doesn't Translate To Something Beyond Your Personal Production. Shohei Not Only Push His Name Into The Stratosphere As The Best Player In Baseball, He's The Hottest Name In Free Agency Come Winter, Yesterday(Meaning weeks Ago) He Became The Hottest Name On The Trade Market Come This July. The Angels Haven't Posted Shohei's Name On The Market With Neon Lights, Open To Shohei Dealing. Whatever The Case, No One In Major League Baseball Believes The Angels Will Lock Shohei Up Long Term. As Transcendent As Any Star Player Before, Shohei turns 30 Years Old Next season, With A Riddled Injury History, Not The 12 Year $400 Million Plus Type Of Investment. Players Older Than Ohthani Have Notched Impressive Deals. Former Dodgers Pitcher Max Scherzer Signed a record three-year, $130 million With $43.3 Million Per Year At Age 37. A Deal In The Range Of Maybe Yankee's Pitcher Gerrit Cole's Nine-year, $324 million contract in 2019 Looks Like The Right Prop Or Framework For Shohei Ohtani. Are The Angels Willing to Spend That Much Money To Lock Up their Star, Who Perhaps Has Half Of That Contract Left Of Prime Years Of Play To Justify The Length Of The Deal? The Shohei Dilemma Becomes Especially Vexing Considering The Angels Already Employ One Injury Riddled Superstar On A Long Term Deal In Mike Trout. The Angels Would Need To Muster Two Scoops Of Resolve To Justify Such A Move. In Some Respect, The Angel's Reluctance To Move Othani, Because His Radiant Glow Must Have The GM And The Move Makers Stupefied, Might Represent The Key Cog In Holding The Team Back From Reaching The Next Level. MLB Teams Would Lineup Around The Parks With Packages Overflowing With Youth And Inexpensive Contracts. With Only Half A Season Left On His Deal, The Angels' Return For Ohtani Could Prove Delightful But Not Anywhere Near What They Once Could Have Received. The Angels Find Themselves Caught In The Purgatory Of A Noncompetitive Inaction Fighting For A Wild Card Spot And Rolling Over Their Immediate Need To Rebuild Into The Next Off Season.
Alternatively, Trading Othani Could Prove Something Of A Zero Sum Game For The Angels. They'll Lose The Most Marketable Player Their Franchise Has To Offer. For Ownership Letting Othani Walk for Any Package Means Watching The Dollars From Merchandise, Primetime Television, and Fans In The Seats, Ride Off Into The Sunset. Of course, Building A long Term Contender Would Nullify Most Of Those Ills still, In The Interim. You'd Presume Another Half Season Of Banking Off Othani Could Yield More Return Than Another Half Season Of Uncertainty.
Los Angeles Represents One Of The Major Markets In The Continental US, But The Angels Of Anaheim Have a Smaller Share Of That Market; Thus, They Lack The Deep Pockets Of Their In City Rivals, Brothers, The Dodgers. The Adverse Spending Of The Angels Explains Some Why The Team's Structure Around Othani Hasn't Come Together Like Voltron Or A Solid "Lego" Statue, A Millennial Falcon.
"Every single time you see Shohei, he does something to help the team," said Luis Rengifo, Angels Second Baseman. A Star Can Only Help A Team So Much. That's One Of The "Circumspect" Ideas About Baseball, As A Pitcher, Even A Star Pitcher, Can Only Affect The Game In So Many Ways. Holding An Opponent To Limited Runs In One Game Or Even Ten Or Eleven Games On The Season On Yields Some Much Results.
The Lack Of Success Seems Like A Self- Perpetual Cycle For The Angels. Without Success Or Breaking The Bank, The Angels Can't Attract Premier Free Agents Without Success Or Winnings. How Can The Angels Escape This Gridlock? Seemingly By Making A Move In Any Direction, As The Old Adage Goes, "More Gets Lost In Indecision Than No Decision." Of course, The Angels Flipped The Narrative. almost Defying The Laws Of gravity And The Laws Of The Media Expectations The Angels Turn Buyers As The Trade Deadline Beckon. The Angels Moved To acquire pitchers Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo López from the Chicago White Sox For Two Prospects, Moved Shohei Off The Trade Block After Reportedly "Underwhelming" Offers For The Star. This Move Represents A 180 Change In Philosophy For The Seemingly Permanently Inactive Angels. Once The Offers Came In For Othani, The Angels Moved Their Sights To The Postseason. As Things Stand, The Angels Fall four games Short Of The Wild Card Spot, Which In Baseball Could Change In One Series.
The Dodgers And Their Impressive Hitting.
Honestly, I Didn't Love To See Him In Blue and White, But Freddie's Presence and His Impact On Base have grown On Me. I'm A Dodger Fan Almost More Than Any Other Sports Team. Maybe The Patriots and Brady Hold A Stronger Acclaim In My Heart, And That Oscillates With The Season. Last Season The Dodgers Scorch The Regular; I'm Talking July Level Record Heat. Not Only Did The Dodgers Win More Than 100 Games They Finished With A +331 Run Differential. Dave Roberts, The Dodgers Manager, Group Bounce Into The Postseason Only To Finish With a Disappointing No World Series Bid. After Dipping Into The Trade Deadline Well Season After Season(Last Time, I Think For Max Scherzer), The Dodgers Found Themselves Fatigued From Digging Out What Look Like For Years An Inexhaustible Farm System and Flexing The Check Book For Average Results And Needed A Reset. The Atlanta Braves Won The World Series, Lead By (Or Least Co-Lead) By One Freddie Freeman. Watching The Braves Smash The Dodger In Six Games Left Me "Aghast" As They March To A World Series Without Their Next Best Player, Ronald Acuna, But Freeman Just "Dogged" Us. Six Months Later, We'd Pay And Employ Him six-year, $162 million deal To Exact Those Very South Paw Swing On Our Opponents(Including The Braves). Last Off Season, The Dodgers Allowed Volumes Of Their Hitting Power Walk In Free Agency, Including Home Grown Talent Like Former MVP Cody Bellinger, Short Stop And Automatic Run (Don't Cry Jason, You Promise You Wouldn't Cry)Corey Seager And Veteran Justin Turner. How Would One Signing Replace That Much Talent? ( The Dodgers also Signed J. D. Martinez From The Red Sox.) Freeman Just Notch A Two Run Home Game and Now Top Ten In The Majors In Nearly Every Relevant Hitting Stats .328/.409/.584, Batting Average, On Base Percentage, And Slugging. Freeman's 20 Home-runs Thus Far Find Nicely Placed In The Top 20 Of The Majors.
Currently, The Dodgers Employ Four Player With At Least 20 Home Runs. The Only Team Who Bares Such Distinction. Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez, Max Muncy, And Freeman. These Big Bats Have Kept The Dodgers Ahead Of The Competition In A Year Most Expected The Team To Take A Step Back. Looking To Not Further Deplete Their Farm System And NOT Expend Resources On Borrowed Commodities, The Dodgers Cut Pay Roll By $50 Million. In Regular Dollars Fifty Million Saved And Still Brandishing A Competitive Sounds Like A Masterclass Finance Management. The Dodgers Still Spend Within The Top Five Teams In League, Well Over Two Hundred Million Only $138 Million Actually Provide Active Value On The 26-Man Roster. The Rest Of The Dodgers Off-season Moves Includes Swapping DH JD Martinez For An Aging Justin Turner With The Red Sox. Martinez Has Notched 73 RBIs Primarily Because He Follows Behind Freddie Freeman In The Lineup. Again Four Dodgers Player Occupy Four Of The Twenty Spots In The Top 20 RBIs. All Equally, The Dodgers Place Forth In Run Differential At 103. Nobody did Such Efficient Hitting. At least I Didn't.
The Dodgers Just On The Spirit Of Their Status As The Dodgers Have The Fall Insight As Contender. The Braves Look Immovable At The Top Of Baseball Best, For Now. What Appears Like The Direct Route To Winning The World Series, Just Put The Braves In Position To Get Toppled Over From Up Top. Moreover, The Dodgers Run Differential Could Look Better If The Pitching Staff Didn't Hold Them Back. Early In The Season, Clayton Kershaw Looked Like god Level Shinobi Kershaw, Through The Start Of The Season Into June Kershaw Put Up Fierce Numbers 2.72 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 10.38 strikeouts per nine, But Since He's Slump And Gone Down With A Shoulder Injury. Julio Urias, The Dodgers' Ace, If You Can Call An "Ace," Has Slumped In A "Prove-Your-Value-Season." The Mexican Lefty Has Never Lived Up To The Hype. The Noah Syndergaard Acquisition Came To A Close In The Days Leading Up To The Deadline, So How The Dodgers Plan For A Resolution At The Pitching Rotation.
