Contrast to Dodgers stands out painfully
The second-worst thing that could have happened to San Francisco Giants fans was the dreaded Los Angeles Dodgers signing Shohei Ohtani, and several other stars, last offseason.
The first worst thing is happening now. Ohtani and those other new L.A. signees are playing their fannies off. They are earning all that money they are being paid. For the moment, anyway, money can buy happiness.
And here they come. The Dodgers are in town for three games, and it could get ugly.
Never has the distance between the crazy-spending Dodgers and the break-even Giants seemed more dramatic. The Dodgers’ big catch, Ohtani, is smoking the ball. The Giants’ big catch, Jung Hoo Lee, is out with a separated shoulder. The Dodgers’ big pitching addition, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, is on fire. The Giants’ biggest new pitcher, Blake Snell, is hoping to get back from the injured list and back to the big club soon, to resume his quest for win No. 1 with S.F. And so on.
If you’re a Giants fan, this series looks scary. Your team could be catching the Dodgers at a bad time — 2024. The Dodgers went on a crazy spending spree, which now looks positively brilliant.
Remember the Golden State Warriors’ glory days, when their road games had the feel of Harlem Globetrotters games? The Dodgers are giving off that type of vibe these days, with Ohtani as Stephen Curry.
Now in his seventh season, Ohtani seems to be catching his stride as a hitter. Able to focus on his hitting as he lets his pitching arm heal, Ohtani is playing every day (two days off to this point) and through Sunday, was batting .352, 48 points higher than his previous best full season.
He leads the majors in slugging (.667) and OPS (1.090). And hits and doubles. And to pick one random analytic, Ohtani leads the bigs in his rate of barrels per plate appearance (16.4%), meaning how often he achieved the perfect combination of exit velocity and launch angle. The No. 2 hitter, Kansas City’s Salvador Perez, is at 13.1%.
At some point, maybe late this season, the Dodgers are going to have to ask themselves a tough question: Once Ohtani is healed from his second Tommy John surgery, can they afford to let him return to the mound? Call it the Babe Ruth Conundrum.
Ohtani is even running more than ever. He has nine stolen bases. The plodding Giants have 13 steals total. Don't even ask how many times Ohtani has been thrown out trying to steal. (OK, you asked: It's zero. The dude's in the zone.)
Ohtani is so golden that he slipped completely out of trouble in what could have been the ugliest gambling scandal in baseball since the Black Sox. It is yet to be explained how Ohtani's friend and interpreter siphoned more than $16 million out of Ohtani's bank account and nobody noticed. Who would've thought that the Ohtani gambling story would peter out and prove to be less explosive than the MLB/Nike pants debacle?
But here Ohtani is, clean and clouting. If it's any consolation to the Giants (it isn't), Ohtani is proving that the Giants were really smart to offer him $700 million over 10 years. Ohtani hasn't explained why he picked the Dodgers over the Giants, but there are rumors that he is allergic to fresh air.
And forget for a moment about Mookie Betts, who could challenge Ohtani for MVP, and Freddie Freeman, hitting as expected. Let's take a quick look at four fellows the Dodgers acquired in the offseason:
• Yamamoto is 4-1 and getting stronger every outing. Dialed in? Last time out, against the Marlins, Yamamoto's first 19 pitches were strikes.
• James Paxton is 5-0 with a 2.58 ERA.
• Tyler Glasnow is 6-1 and leads the majors in strikeouts. Even more galling to Giants fans, the 6-foot-8 right-hander's nickname is the Baby Giraffe.
• Outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, picked up almost as an afterthought on a one-year boost-mystock contract, has 33 RBIs, 12 more than Giants team leader Thairo Estrada.
To be fair, lots of people could drive in 33 runs batting behind Ohtani, Betts and Freeman.
Meanwhile, all the Giants' B-list acquisitions are spending their time in rehab, and those holes are being patched by minorleague reinforcements. That could turn out to be a good thing. Remember when Buster Posey and Tim Lincecum were emergency-rushed to the big leagues ahead of the Giants' plans, and started a nice little run for the ballclub?
But that's ancient history. Right now, the Giants are scrambling while the Dodgers are playing special ball. After losing seven of nine in a mid-April slump, L.A. has won 15 of 19. Its run margin of plus-74 is miles ahead of the Phillies' next-best plus-62.
At home, the Dodgers draw 46,194 per game, almost 14,000 more than the Giants. On the road, the Dodgers outdraw every other team in baseball. They put on an entertaining show, if you can overlook the detail that they are beating the stuffing out of your team.
The Giants can't afford to let that happen. But there are a lot of things they can't afford, as they will be reminded this week.