Scouting Report

The only player in major league history to win at least ten games as a pitcher and hit at least ten home runs in a season is Babe Ruth in 1918.  25-year old Shohei Ohtani is the only player to have done the same feat in Japan's major leagues and he's accomplished it twice (2014, 2016).  Though the level of competition in Japan is not the same as in American baseballs it's still quite impressive and when Ohtani signed recently with the Los Angeles Angels it caught everyone's attention.
(photo from espn.com)

THC watched Ohtani get roughed up in his spring training debut here in Tempe and he was hammered even harder during the rest of spring training causing some to wonder whether he should start the season in Triple-A.  Instead, the Angels started him at DH on opening day and he made his pitching debut this afternoon, which THC closely observed.  Here's my report:

Fastball:  Consistently 97 to 99mph with good movement.  Hit 100 on one pitch.

Off-Speed: Split finger (87-90), slider (82-84), and curve (74-79), all with a lot of break.

Smooth motion and works relatively quickly.

Result: 6 innings, 3 hits, 3 runs, one walk, and six K's.  The three hits all came in the 2nd inning, and all in a row (single, single, home run), which was the only time he had a sequence of pitches in bad locations.

Overall: Impressive.

And, by the way, the Oakland Athletics can't play defense.