MLB Bullets has “Ohtanimania”

If this isn’t going to turn into “Shohei Ohtani Bullets,” someone is going to have to do something more amazing that Ohtani. Or even better, someone needs to stop him from doing incredible things.

Wasn’t it just two weeks ago in this space that people were calling for him to start the season in the minors?

• Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani took a perfect game into the seventh inning on Sunday, retiring the first 19 Athletics batters he faced. Ohtani finished with seven scoreless innings, striking out 12.
• Tim Keown has the story of Ohtani’s baseball journey, from his beginnings in Japan to his decision to come to America. You should read this one.
• Jeff Passan issues an apology to Ohtani, and he explains why his Spring Training column on Ohtani’s hitting is looking spectacularly wrong. That was one that got discussed a lot around here and I have to admit that I didn’t think he’d hit either, although I had little doubt in his pitching skills.
• Here are 13 facts from the remarkable start to Ohtani’s MLB career.
• David Schoenfield writes that just when you think you’ve seen the best out of Ohtani, he does something even better.
• Tim Brown marvels at Ohtani’s ability and notes that he’s already becoming a must-watch player. Brown doesn’t make this comparison, but I did hear someone on Sportscenter compare Ohtani to the “Fernandomania” of 1981.
• Jon Tayler writes that he doesn’t care one whit about your small-sample size, because Ohtani is one of the best players in the game already.
• Another player having a great start to the season and who is already one of the best players in the game is Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper, who already has six home runs this year.
• Matt Snyder has a closer look at Harper’s amazing start, as well as noting that the Braves’ organist played “Go Cubs Go” every time Harper came to the plate in Atlanta. Which honestly, may go down as the troll job of the season, even if Harper isn’t playing for the Cubs next year. (And I think the odds are probably against him playing for the Cubs.)
• Another emerging star having a great start is Athletics third baseman Matt Chapman. In fact, Michael Baumann argues that we would all know that Chapman is an emerging superstar if anyone was actually watching A’s games. (This is a piece about both Chapman and the A’s attendance problems.)
• Someone not having a great start to the year is Yankees outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, who went 0 for 7 with five strikeouts on Sunday. It got so bad that the Orioles actually intentionally walked Aaron Judge to get to Stanton in extra innings, and Stanton grounded out. Stanton is getting booed in the Bronx, although he seems to understand. Stanton said “they’re not going to cheer for that, so what do you expect?”
• Stanton hit into the first 1-2-5 double play in 12 years.
• In one of the weirder altercations in recent years, Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina went after Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo while Lovullo was arguing a call at home plate. Apparently Lovullo referred to Molina as an [expletive deleted] while arguing with home plate umpire Tim Timmons.
• Umpire Marty Foster defended his ejection of Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon on Saturday, despite Rendon not saying a word. Rendon disagrees.
• Cleveland pitcher Trevor Bauer is no fan of the new “pace-of-play” rules.
• The Red Sox are 8-1, which is the best nine-game start in franchise history. Partly that’s because the Red Sox traditionally lose intentionally on Opening Day, just so Boston fans can scream in disgust that the season is already over. (No, the Red Sox don’t actually lose intentionally. But Boston fans have been known to declare a season “over” after one loss.)
• Phil Coyne has retired. Who is Phil Coyne? He’s a 99-year-old usher who has been working Pirates games for the last 81 years. In his career, he’s worked over 6,000 Pirates games since 1936. The Hall-of-Famers the Paul and Lloyd Waner and Arky Vaughan were still playing for the Pirates in games Coyne worked. Pie Traynor was the manager. (Player-manager, technically, but Traynor never put himself in a home game in Pittsburgh after Coyne started working there.)
• Mark Armour has a brief history of the CBS-owned Yankees, which is the period from 1965 to 1972 when CBS owned the team before selling to George Steinbrenner. This is traditionally known as a dark period in Yankees history, but Armour argues that it was actually pretty good and CBS built the foundations upon which the championship teams of the seventies were built. They also kept the team in the Bronx when a lot of people thought the Yankees should move to New Jersey. It should also be noted that this was the period after the start of the draft and before the dawn of free agency, so it was the only time in Yankees history when they couldn’t just buy all the best players. (h/t Hardball Talk.)
• Rangers infielder Rougned Odor really doesn’t like the Blue Jays and he has no problems making his feelings known.
• Jeff Sullivan notes that Blue Jays pitcher Aaron Sanchez has figured out “something” with his changeup and it has made him a much better pitcher this year.
• Travis Sawchik outlines how even though the Padres may have the softest-tossing bullpen in the majors, they also have one of the best bullpens in the majors.
• MLB Advanced Media is being sued over a patent infringement and other stuff. I suggest if you’re interested, you should follow the links rather than have me try to explain intellectual property law to you.
• Buster Olney believes that upcoming free agents should use their “emotional leverage” to get big extensions from their current clubs, much as he believes Charlie Blackmon just did.
• Doug Glanville offers his take on baseball’s “unwritten rules” and argues that there is a reason for unwritten rules to exist.
• A lot of odd stuff happened the first week and a half of the baseball season.
• Mariners first baseman Ryon Healy injured his ankle in an after-game workout. The severity is not yet know, but he will miss some time. That means more Vogelbach for everyone!
• Rian Watt looks at the extensive database that MLB maintains of every single professional player, as well as every draft-eligible player. No trade is official until it’s in the database.
• Edie Ravenelle is the mother of a minor league pitcher, and she offers her perspective of the journey of a professional ballplayer from a mother’s point of view.
• White Sox outfielder Nicky Delmonico needed to warm up with someone before Sunday’s game, so he tossed the ball with his brother who was standing in the left field bleachers.
• And finally, Phillies slugger Rhys Hoskins got embarrassed by being unable to get the donut off his bat and he had to have to bat boy get it off for him.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.