Little to go on with Angels’ dual threat
The A’s open the season against the Angels, a team they know well. Except for one hitter and one pitcher — who’s actually the same guy.
The A’s have limited data on Shohei Ohtani, the two-way sensation from Japan who could be the designated hitter in the opening series at the Coliseum and is on target to pitch Saturday, though the Angels haven’t made that official.
“Interesting. It’s not a guy we have a lot on,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We looked at all his spring training at-bats and obviously recorded all his spring training games. The one guy on that roster you really don’t know much about.”
Ohtani’s struggles this spring are well documented. At the plate, he’s 3-for-28 (.107) with nine strikeouts. On the mound, he has a 27.00 ERA, but that counts just 22⁄3 innings in two Cactus League games (he did OK against the Brewers but not the Rockies). He also appeared in a B game, an exhibition against the Tijuana Toros and, most recently, an intrasquad game against minor-leaguers.
“Unfortunately,” Melvin said with a smile, “they wouldn’t let us video those.”
The A’s could always check Ohtani’s video from Japan, where he batted .322 with 22 homers in 2016 for the Nippon Ham Fighters and posted a 1.86 ERA in 21 games, 20 of them starts. He was hurt much of 2017 and was limited to 65 games, five as a pitcher.
“The talent level is pretty extreme,” Melvin said. “There are some adjustments he has to make to play baseball over here. But at the end of the day, everybody wanted him, and (the Angels) ended up getting him. I’m sure they’re pretty happy about it.”
In the offseason, Ohtani narrowed his list of teams to seven finalists. The list included five West Coast teams — every one except the A’s.
Joyce’s knee: Outfielder Matt Joyce was feeling better a day after hitting a foul ball off his right knee. The ball hit just below the kneecap. After treatment on Monday, Joyce said, “Pretty positive and excited about how it felt.”
He’s expected to return to the lineup Tuesday.