{"id":19549,"date":"2019-05-07T22:08:32","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T02:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/?p=19549"},"modified":"2019-05-07T22:08:32","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T02:08:32","slug":"los-angeles-angels-activate-shohei-ohtani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2019\/05\/07\/los-angeles-angels-activate-shohei-ohtani\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Angels Activate Shohei Ohtani"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/mlb-teams\/los-angeles-angels\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Los Angeles Angels<\/strong><\/a> activated Japanese sensation <strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/ohtansh01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shohei Ohtani<\/a><\/strong><\/strong> prior to Tuesday night&#8217;s game at the <a href=\"lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/\/mlb-teams\/detroit-tigers\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Detroit Tigers<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong> Ohtani&#8217;s 2018 rookie season was cut short due to a torn UCL. The injury forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery, so he will not pitch this season.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Angels Activate Shohei Ohtani<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Ohtani put up good numbers in 10 games as a starting pitcher, but he was signed by the Angels for both his arm and bat. It was this rare combination of his offense and pitching that got him voted the American League Rookie of the Year. Consequently, Ohtani will serve as the team&#8217;s regular designated hitter for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">OFFICIAL: Shohei Ohtani will be activated for tonight\u2019s game. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FBf2ZHfB2s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/FBf2ZHfB2s<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Angels\/status\/1125852618914353153?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 7, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Offensive Ohtani<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Ohtani&#8217;s offensive production in 2018 was quite impressive. He hit 22 HR&#8217;s and drove in 61 runs in just 326 at-bats. The Angels as a team have given up 16 more runs than they have scored. A healthy Ohtani offensively can tip the scales in the right direction for the Angels.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Angels Effect<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Ohtani immediately becomes the second-best offensive player on the Angels behind <strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/troutmi01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Trout<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>. <strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/u\/uptonju01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Justin Upton<\/a><\/strong><\/strong> has yet to play this season due to turf toe, and his return date is still not known. The team ERA is high at 5.05. Outside of the soon-to-be-returning <strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/heanean01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Heaney<\/a>,<\/strong><\/strong> there is no pitching help on the horizon. Unless the Angels seek pitching help outside of the organization, they will have to outscore their opponents to win games.<\/p>\n<p>The Angels, with a record of 15-19, are currently in fourth place, five and one-half games behind the first place Houston Astros. Even with the season being less than a quarter old, the top teams in the league are starting to hit their strides. The Angels need to keep pace with not just the Astros but also the other potential wild card teams. Their roster is not as talented as the top teams in the league, so getting the team to full strength is crucial to the success of this season.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"gakbgx2xRklfSMFBI4_w4g\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1147670330\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'gakbgx2xRklfSMFBI4_w4g',sig:'5ZqE5UJaswujG9ZiEAv47fSDs7xbvtNuf8RMeXKkXVM=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1147670330',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Angels activated Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani prior to Tuesday night&#8217;s game at the Detroit Tigers. Ohtani&#8217;s 2018 rookie season was cut short due to a torn UCL. The injury forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery, so he will not pitch this season. Angels Activate Shohei Ohtani Ohtani put up good numbers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":653,"featured_media":19575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16,2,1071,35],"tags":[156],"class_list":["post-19549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-angels","category-featured","category-mlb","category-news","tag-los-angeles-angels"],"modified_by":"Evan Thompson","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}