Ruth and Ohtani: hitters who could pitch, not pitchers who could hit. Aaron Judge could, too.

American League Rookie of the Year award:
2017 Aaron Judge: all 30 first place votes; 678 PA, 52 HR, OPS+ 171
2018 Shohei Ohtani: 25 first place votes; 367 PA, 22 HR, OPS+ 152

But wait, Ohtani also pitched ... a whopping 51.66 innings: ERA+ 126

Ohtani was never all that full time in Japan:
Year PA, Innings
2013 204, 61
2014 234, 155
2015 119, 160
2016 382, 140
2017 231, 25

Ohtani broke down in the middle of his first USA season despite his light work load as both a hitter (never played the field) and pitcher (never batted). Ohtani:
- did not bat between June 4 and July 3, 2018
- did not pitch between June 6 and September 2, 2018, his last pitching game; 2 innings.

Oct. 1, 2018 Ohtani had "Tommy John" surgery on his right pitching elbow.

If Judge and Ohtani had been rookies in the same season, which would have been voted the Rookie of the Year award? Hold that thought.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Judge#Early_life_and_amateur_career

Judge attended Linden High School, where he was a three-sport star. He played as a pitcher and first baseman for the baseball team, a wide receiver for the football team, and as a center for the basketball team.
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But Judge did not do both as a baseball pro, be both a "full time" hitter and pitcher. Just like he did not also play pro football and/or basketball.

Babe Ruth and Shohei Ohtani, one hundred years apart, excelled at both hitting and pitching. Conventional wisdom in 2018 was that Ohtani was amazing. I'm guessing that in 1918 Ruth was not viewed with quite so much amazement.

So why don't others excel or even do both? Because if you can hit, you hit. If you cannot hit, you pitch. It's pretty basic. Pitchers do not need good eyesight or hand-eye coordination. They need only one of the five traditional skills and are not rated on the others.

Pitchers are not players, needing only one of the five tools. Monday, August 10, 2015

Any hitter with a good arm can probably also pitch but he doesn't bother. That would include many players from these fielding positions that require a good arm: catcher, shortstop, third, right. That's half of the eight fielding positions.

Aaron Judge plays right field and has a cannon of an arm. I'm guessing that he could at the very least blow hitters away for an inning or two. But since hitting is by far the more difficult skill, Judge did not waste time and concentration trying to do both.

Ohtani seems to not have been able to make up his mind and he has been coddled and accommodated, both in Japan and in the USA. Bo Jackson got something like that treatment when he chose to play major league baseball full time and in the NFL part time. Jackson also broke down and has an artificial hip. Career:
baseball: 2,626 PA, 141 HR (32 in 1989), OPS+ 112.
football: 16 TD; longest NFL run from scrimmage 3 of his 4 years: 91, 88, 92.
Bo knows.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/32056fe8



Jackson could have made sports history when he was selected to play in the NFL Pro Bowl after the season, which would have made him the first athlete to play in all-star games in two different sports. That was not to be, however, as he suffered a hip injury in a Raiders 20-10 playoff win over the Cincinnati Bengals on January 13, 1991, when he was tackled after a 34-yard run. He didn’t play in the AFC Championship Game against the Buffalo Bills — which was probably just as well because the Raiders lost 51-3. He never played football again...

He had developed a condition called avascular necrosis, which meant that his hip cartilage and bone were deteriorating. When spring training came around, he was still walking around on crutches and clearly unable to play. The Royals placed him on waivers on March 18 (1991)...

Jackson had his damaged hip replaced with a prosthetic ball and socket in Chicago on April 4, 1992. The prognosis was that he would be able to run after he recovered from the operation, but not at the level of a professional athlete.
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How much did Babe Ruth pitch and bat at the same time? Monday, April 9, 2018

Babe Ruth batting order position when pitching. Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Ruth and Ohtani work loads at age 23 one hundred years apart. Thursday, June 7, 2018
Non-pitchers hardly ever have arm troubles. So have pitchers behave more like them and improve the game. Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Shohei Ohtani should not be considered for Rookie of the Year. Thursday, November 8, 2018

Shohei Ohtani is the darling of those who want to show how smart they are. Specifically, they want Ohtani to be voted Rookie of the Year.

Shouldn't there be some reasonable minimum amount of playing time?

There is precedent for a player being voted Rookie of the Year (RoY) with little playing time. Recently departed Hall of Famer Willie McCovey had only 219 plate appearances (PA) in 1959 but was voted RoY. However, McCovey didn't make his major league debut until July 30, 1959. So McCovey played regularly. He just came up late...

The more games you play or the more ABs you have, the harder it is to have a high BA.
So if Ohtani had played more his performance would likely have not been as good. If I were voting for RoY, I would not consider Shohei Ohtani.

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Shohei Ohtani needs to make up his mind and concentrate on one side of the ball, probably hitting. The rest of us need to grow up.