Shohei Ohtani: Two challenges stand in the way of winning the Triple Crown

It was truly a “hitting moment.

Neither Shohei Ohtani, 30, nor the right fielder took a single step in the batter’s box as the ball hit the top shelf of the second tier of the light stand. The ball hit a super-fast and super-large No. 32 with a velocity of 191 km/h. It stunned the entire United States.

At this pace, he will hit around 48 home runs, a .310 to .320 batting average, around 116 runs batted in, a 40% or higher on-base percentage, a 1.050 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage), and over 40 stolen bases.

In his two-faced days, there were cases where his performance dropped or he broke down in the second half of the season due to fatigue, but this season, there is no need to worry about that.

The birth of the “first Japanese triple crown winner in the majors,” which no one in the world had ever even imagined before, is now becoming a reality.

However, this is Major League Baseball, the world’s most prestigious stage. It is not an easy dream to make come true. In fact, the data clearly shows the “two challenges” that Otani must overcome in order to win the Triple Crown.

The first test is “batting average with runners in scoring position. His batting average has dropped significantly from .317 last season to .247 (as of July 30. When the bases are loaded, the problem is even worse.)

When the bases are loaded, the problem is even worse: He was hitting .375 last season, but this season he is hitting .167, which is not even close to 20%. This is probably related to his move to the Dodgers. The Angels, a weak team with only Ohtani as a star, and an evergreen team with top-notch players, have different levels of attention and pressure from fans and the media. And this is only his first year with the Angels. In order to gain the trust of his teammates and make a place for himself, he has no choice but to achieve results and gain their recognition. The fact that his batting average in March and April was particularly poor in terms of runs batted in shows his impatience to get results as soon as possible.

Otani, too, is a human being. Even so, he is second in the league with 76 runs batted in because he has many opportunities to bat when there are runners on base. This is the biggest advantage of moving to the Dodgers.