MLB All Star 2021 Wrap Up
It’s true. Not often can you find anything baseball related on this site and suddenly, here it is. Well there’s a pretty good reason, in fact 2 very good reasons why you can find MLB on Bob and Jim today and they are Vlad Guerrero Jr and Shohei Ohtani.
Vlad. Okay, let’s start with the MVP of the All Star game and in fact the youngest ever MVP of the All Star game. Vlad is like a little miracle here in Toronto, the engine that could, the impossible dream. Wildly talented, hard working and the nicest guy on the team. What a package. And barely 22 years old, the exhibition on display at last night’s MLB Allstar game was MVP Worthy. He logged a single, a tremendous 468 foot home run and 2 RBIs. Youngest All Star MVP Yet.
Still, he wasn’t the main course, the reason so many eyes from around the world had turned in and so many sports journalists flooded the stadium. No it was Ohtani.
Shohei. How good is Shohei Ohtani? Should we start with his 100 plus mph fastball or his slugging percentage? That’s right, for the first time since Babe Ruth in 1919-1920, we have a genuine threat on both sides of the baseball. How big a threat? He leads the majors in homeruns with 33, 20% more than his nearest rivals. He’s also gone 4-1 in 13 starts. In the All Star game he grounded out twice but pitched a great game and came up the win as the American League beat the National League 5-2.
How good Will Ohtani be? At 27 years of age and in his 4th year in the majors, no one is certain what the young man’s ceiling might be or what he might accomplish during his time. So many questions. Why is the first in so many years? What is unique about him that creates this talent? Will he decide at some point to focus on just one side of the ball and if he does, will it be pitching or hitting, offence or defense? Can he stay healthy? How many records will he break? Does he herald a new era of two way players? Will Stephen A Smith just shut up? Silly question there, of course he can’t.
What about Vlad? How good will he become? After rumours of concerns over his weight swirled last season, it appears that he is on track. He’s slimmed down – for Vlad – and his offense and defense are strong. At 22 years of age, he could conceivably rule the slugging stats for a decade or more tear the record books apart. One thing is for certain, he will be the heart and soul of the Toronto Blue Jays for many years to come.
Even those of us who don’t follow Major League Baseball very closely will want to keep our eyes on the progress of these two amazing players.