100+100

Shohei Ohtani will participate in the 2021 Home Run Derby and it will surely attract a lot of attention. By far this season, Ohtani already crushed 28 home runs and his OPS is over 1.000. In addition, he already tossed 60 innings, posting a 3.60 ERA and a 1.27 WHIP. I’m just wondering if he can achieve something incredible. Well, I’m wondering whether Shohei Ohtani can finish the season with at least 100 runs batted in and 100 innings pitched.

To pitch 100 innings in a single season might not be too difficult for Ohtani if he stays healthy. Ohtani did toss more than 100 innings in a single season three times when he played for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in NPB. Last season was a shortened season and no pitchers threw 100 innings. However, from 2015 to 2019, there were at least 130 pitchers to toss 100+ innings. By far, Ohtani already tossed 60 innings and it will be possible to see him throw at least 100 innings in the 2021 season. However, he only pitched 0.2 innings and gave up 7 runs in his last start. He has to avoid letting this happen again.

Well, collecting 100 RBI might be more difficult because you really need your teammates on base while batting. Otherwise, it’s not that easy to collect many RBI. Nonetheless, it’s not impossible. From 2015 to 2019, there were at least 13 players who can collect at least 100 RBI each season. Only 13 players collected 100+ RBI in 2015 and in 2019, 22 players had at least 100 RBI. In 2019, Ronald Acuna Jr. finished the season with 101 RBI. He collected 53 RBI in 90 games before the 2019 All-Star game. Moreover, Mike Trout, Ohtani’s teammate in the Angels, collected 100 RBI in 2016. Trout had 58 RBI in the first half of the 2016 season. Shohei Ohtani has played 75 games so far and already collected 63 RBI, ranking the 3rd most in the majors. Thus, Ohtani is on track to reach 100 RBI. Of course, he has to be healthy and has to avoid being in a slump. Shohei Ohtani has been compared to Babe Ruth since he announced to play in the MLB as a two-way player. Babe Ruth is definitely one of the greatest baseball players. Ruth had achieved so many milestones such as 700 home runs and 2000 RBI. In Babe Ruth’s legendary career, he finished 13 seasons with 100+ RBI. In addition, he tossed more than 1000 innings and had 94 wins in his career. He finished 5 seasons with throwing at least 100 innings. In particular, in 1919, Babe Ruth tossed 133.1 innings for the Boston Red Sox, in the meantime, he collected 113 RBI. Yes, it’s been more than 100 years. We might witness something incredible happen this year and Ohtani might make history. However, the most important thing is that Ohtani has to stay healthy and avoid being in a slump, in particular, he announced that he would participate in the 2021 home run derby. We just don’t know whether participating in the home run derby will influence Ohtani’s performance in the second half of the season. Oh, by the way, Ohtani has 75 home runs in his career so far. It might be possible to see him reach the 100 HR milestone in 2021.