The song “Nobody Does It Better” by Carly Simon was made for the James Bond movie “The Spy Who Loved Me” in 1977, but I like to think of it as the song that Los Angeles Dodgers DH Shohei Ohtani should be walking out to each night. There was a point in time that there was a serious debate about who the best player in the sport of baseball was: Aaron Judge or Ohtani? There simply isn’t an argument now, in my humble opinion. The Japanese star has turned into this generation’s Babe Ruth, only better.
Now, that statement is going to get a lot of hate directed toward me, but it is hard to argue against it. Ohtani has literally created a new stat category for himself after his game last night against the Miami Marlins, becoming the first “50/50” player in MLB history. He has 51 homers and 50 stolen bases on the season, which no player has ever managed to do in a single season. Having the type of power to hit 50+ homers, combined with having the speed to steal 50+ bases, makes him the first true six tool player with no weakness.
Not only did he make history in terms of his season stats, but in that game against Miami, he put on perhaps the greatest single performance by a player in a single game. He went 6-for-6 with four runs scored, with two doubles and three homers, while generating 10 RBI and two stolen bases.
According to OptaStats: Since RBI became official in 1920, only one MLB player has had, over the course of his entire career (same game or not): a game with 10+ RBI, a game with 6+ hits, a game with 5+ XBH, a game with 3+ HR and a game with 2+ SB.
That one player is Shohei Ohtani. He did all of it in one day.
There are few players in any sport where everyone can simultaneously agree they are the best playing in that era. Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi, Wayne Gretzky, and Tom Brady are just some other guys that were unanimously the best when they were playing in their respective sports. I would love to hear an argument from anyone reading this that someone else in MLB is better than Ohtani right now. He isn’t even contributing with his pitching right now, where he is also great.
He’s well on his way to being the greatest baseball player of all time, and he might already be that. Nobody does it better.
Continue to fire up his player props on a daily basis because he just reminded us that he has more upside than anyone else… again.
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