Shohei Otani (29, LA Angels) brought about a new type of pitch, the so-called ‘sweeper’, in the MLB. He is showing a powerful ball like a front runner.스포츠토토
Japanese media Full Count cited the US MLB Network on the 19th and said, “Ohtani’s sweeper was selected as the 4th most difficult ball in the major leagues.”
The ranking was chosen by Xavier Scruggs, 36, a panelist on the MLB Network. Scruggs, a former major leaguer, played for the NC Dinos in 2017 and 2018 and is a name familiar to domestic fans.
Scruggs analyzed, “Ohtani is increasing the proportion of sweepers this year because the results are good.” He said he admired the sweeper’s movement, saying, “If you see this ball moving, it should be banned by law.”
The sweeper has a clear horizontal movement, so there is a lot of change from side to side. Sweeper, whose weight has recently increased in the major leagues, is drawing attention from many people, especially since Ohtani started throwing it in the second half of last year.
Ohtani, who threw 21.9% of all pitches as a sweeper in 2021, raised the proportion to 44.9% this year following 37.4% last year. Power is great too. His batting average is just 0.138, and he caught 36 (51%) of his 71 strikeouts on the season as a sweeper. 36.4% of the situations where Ohtani hit the sweeper resulted in misses.
Ohtani Shohei. /AFPBBNews=News1
With a new weapon at the forefront, Ohtani is on a winning streak this season as well. He started 9 games on the mound until the 19th, and is recording 5 wins and 1 loss with an earned run average of 3.23. Although he is faltering with an ERA of 5.68 in 3 games in May, he has not collapsed by playing more than 5 innings in each game.
Ohtani, who has a batting average of 0.292, 10 homers, 31 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.904 with 6 stolen bases, is showing a high level of performance in both pitching and hitting with new weapons on the mound.
As a result, the value of Ohtani, who is about to become a free agent (FA), is also rising. American media ESPN reported on the 8th, “Experts predicted Ohtani’s future ransom, and some people mentioned a whopping 605 million dollars (about 802.8 billion won).” The media conducted a survey of 26 people, including major league club executives, agents, and other officials, and these expectations came out.
ESPN quoted an official as saying, “Ohtani is two different players with an annual salary of $ 35 million (approximately 46.4 billion won).” Both the pitcher and hitter highly appreciated the value of Ohtani, who is a top player.