Statistician Bill James isn’t a big fan of hype, it seems, and that means he’s a bit of a skeptic when it comes to Shohei Ohtani.
James, regarded as the godfather of analytics in baseball, took a swipe at Ohtani — or perhaps more specifically the hype around him — on Saturday.
You remember how, a year ago, everybody was all excited about Shohei Ohtani being the next Babe Ruth?
That was fun.
— Bill James Online (@billjamesonline) May 18, 2019
Ohtani has 24 home runs in 368 career at-bats. No, he’s not Babe Ruth, but that’s still impressive and a pretty significant total. Just to drive the point home, Ohtani homered later on in the game Saturday.
James has a curmudgeonly side and he’s made some other comments that rightly didn’t go over well in the past. It’s not clear what his big issue with Ohtani is, but it’s a little bit over the top.
