A thorough and well-presented defense of Soto, Hoss. One point of clarification: Are the numbers for Ohtani through his age 27 year? That's what I was considering, although his two years since have been noticeably better than those earlier seasons. In fact, further musing has led me to think that maybe thinking "generational" by age 27 is not that great an idea, either for or against. It can change, as it did with Judge and seems to be with Ohtani. So my main argument is, perhaps, moot. These things happen.
That said, I do not think Soto's defense is very good. The number of putouts and thrown outs are great. Unfortunately, neither Baseball Reference nor any other source doesn't keep stats on misplayed balls and tough plays made or not made. An outfielder seems to have to work to get an error called on him--perhaps I'm wrong, but that's how it seems to me. So watching one play day in and day out trumps the stats, in my humble opinion.
And while Ohtani doesn't play the field, Soto doesn't pitch. Ohtani's "generational" tag really rests largely on the fact that he is very good at the plate and on the mound, both. Pitching is like quarterbacking. It usually determines the course of the game. Playing a corner outfield slot, not so much. So I give the pitching a lot more weight than fielding, even if it's good.
Ohtani doesn't pitch deep into games, true. Nobody pitches deep into games. So I don't see that as a mark against him. Part of his g-g-g-generation.
We can quibble over Ichiro. I see your point there. And I will say that maybe, like Judge, Soto becomes a generational player as time goes on. At the moment, I don't think so. In a few years, it may be obvious, even to me.
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I think you're both right. I have just been boycotting the world at the moment, so I have refrained from commenting. It may be time to move to Greenland and either get rich or get blown up. Either way, it's a win. Or, I can buy the rights to a future MLB franchise out there. "Top of the world, Ma!!!"
Pretty funny, Bitty! And fair enough, JM. Glad we could distract ourselves with this, while waiting for the least exciting free agent chase of all time to be over.
Actually, Soto's 27 year will be this season; he just turned 27 near the end of last October—when he was, of course, home.
And as for Ohtani's pitching...yes, it's impressive. And yes, no one is allowed to pitch long these days. But he is averaging few than 5 wins a season, and seems to often get hurt doing so.
I will concede, though, that major-league scorers just don't give out errors anymore. Which is ridiculous. Sigh. What else can we find to debate?
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