Blue Jays Discussion: Off-Season Edition III: Spring Training Madness (Spring Training is over. Season starts on Thursday, Mar 30)

[The Nemesis]

Japan!!! Man it's either Ohtani or McDavid as the best athlete in sports right now!!

Ohtani is kind of like McDavid if McDavid also played goalie every few games (and was great at it)

 

[Kurtz]

That was epic.

And yeah, Ohtani may be the greatest professional athlete of all time. He's taken Bo's crown imo.

 

[TMLeafer]

Wow can't believe I got to witness Ohtahni vs Trout with the championship on the line.

 

[Puckstuff]

Ohtani is kind of like McDavid if McDavid also played goalie every few games (and was great at it)

But then McDavid would lose all of his offensive production and value by playing goalie.

There really isn't an analogy here. Ohtani is insane.

 

[The Nemesis]

But then McDavid would lose all of his offensive production and value by playing goalie.

There really isn't an analogy here. Ohtani is insane.

He would just have to score at, say, a 20% better pace than he does now so that the 20% of games he plays in net and doesn't record many/any points are offset.

Or he'd have to learn how to clone himself.

 

[Eyedea]

But then McDavid would lose all of his offensive production and value by playing goalie.

There really isn't an analogy here. Ohtani is insane.

I believe the comparison would be that McDavid would also have to prevent goals as well as he scores them. But I also don’t think Ohtani is McDavid level in either role, but he’s elite at both which is obviously unparalleled.

Edit, I understand your point now. Basically McDavid would have to be allowed to go across the neutral line as a goalie.

 

[CatchyTune]

I think we just watched an alltime classic boys. Right before our eyes. Hit me as soon as Trout walked to the plate.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

I don't care about all the fretting over guys getting hurt in this tournament or all the "feh, the best of the best aren't there so who cares." crap.

This tournament was fantastic from top to bottom.

Agree completely. The tournament was playoff like from the beginning. In March. And you can't tell me the players didn't love representing their country -- some of them looked more satisfied with their accomplishments representing their country's emblem than they do their MLB team.

Sign me up for this every four years.

(The NHL needs to take serious notes from this)

 

[canucksfan]

I had zero interest in this tournament before it started. However, as the tournament progressed I was watching every game. What a great moment for the sport.

 

[The Nemesis]

Agree completely. The tournament was playoff like from the beginning. In March. And you can't tell me the players didn't love representing their country -- some of them looked more satisfied with their accomplishments representing their country's emblem than they do their MLB team.

Sign me up for this every four years.

(The NHL needs to take serious notes from this)

The fun thing is that even the "silly" teams like Italy, Israel, Great Britain, or Netherlands that are like 90% made of players who aren't actually from that country still were really into it.

And if anything, the lack of across-the-board best players helped things because it gave lesser nations a puncher's chance and made the games entertaining/exciting.

A Team USA at completely full strength would probably steamroll everyone. But the team they sent was no slouch and was still probably the only one there that was top-to-bottom 100% MLB players with no foreign domestic league or MiLB guys. So sure they were co-favorites along with Japan and D.R. but the fact that they couldn't walk all over everyone meant that the games against the rest of their pool mostly had intrigue potential (and in some cases paid off). They can afford to send their B-team (which still had some damn good players on it. When you start with Trout, Betts, Aranado, Goldschmidt that's a murderer's row caliber heart of the lineup) and we still get fun baseball out of it.

Great Britain avoiding relegation was a great story. Mexico's cinderella run was a lot of fun. Venezuela putting a good scare into the US before the come-from-behind win was exciting.

 

[Gabriel426]

I believe the comparison would be that McDavid would also have to prevent goals as well as he scores them. But I also don’t think Ohtani is McDavid level in either role, but he’s elite at both which is obviously unparalleled.

Edit, I understand your point now. Basically McDavid would have to be allowed to go across the neutral line as a goalie.

What about McD as a Dman instead of goalie, lol.

 

[thehockeysong]

One thing that's important to note in the McDavid vs ohtani thing however is that ohtani isn't as dominant at either position as McDavid is at his. He's at an entirely different level, so I don't think he necessarily needs to also play goalie to match the "best" title

 

[Bjindaho]

One thing that's important to note in the McDavid vs ohtani thing however is that ohtani isn't as dominant at either position as McDavid is at his. He's at an entirely different level, so I don't think he necessarily needs to also play goalie to match the "best" title

Ohtani isn't as good combined as McJesus. McDavid is approaching hallowed ground with his season this year. Ohtani has put up an 8 and a 9.4 fWAR season in the last two. Putting that in perspective, Judge just put up an 11.4.

McDavid is starting to pull away from the entire NHL as the best player, but Ohtani would need to take a big leap to get there (even with the rules being modified to help him).

 

[Bjindaho]

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

That's one of the best baseball moments I've witnessed, wow.

 

[canucksfan]

Likely the batting order for opening day other than Whit or Espinal comes in for Biggio

 

[theaub]

Tournament was fantastic and once again belies the absurdity that our moron NHL commisionner has wilfully allowed best on best NHL competition to disappear (I still have my doubts that the 2025 WC will happen and even if it does it will probably have the stupid Team Europe stuff again).

I don't think I'm particularly big on the aforementioned 'fake' teams (although I'd exclude the Netherlands from that since most if not all of their players are from overseas territories), but considering GB/Czechs both qualified for '26 whatever. Hopefully they bring a group back to Canada for the next one.

 

[Nineteen67]

I didnt care about the WBC going in, but the all the different fanbases got me watching early and I got hooked.

Whoever wrote the script needs a raise.

 

[Tufted Titmouse]

Wow can't believe I got to witness Ohtahni vs Trout with the championship on the line.

I haven't felt that kind of energy watching baseball since this:

 

[Suntouchable13]

That was epic.

And yeah, Ohtani may be the greatest professional athlete of all time. He's taken Bo's crown imo.

Whoa, when was Bo Bichette considered the best athlete ever?

 

[Morgs]

But then McDavid would lose all of his offensive production and value by playing goalie.

There really isn't an analogy here. Ohtani is insane.

He'd just obviously have to score in full goalie equipment.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

Ohtani is kind of like McDavid if McDavid also played goalie every few games (and was great at it)

Connor McDavid is a better athlete than Mahomes? Not even close as Mahomes is a much better athlete.

 

[Eyedea]

I mean if we're going purely off athleticism I'm not sure anyone is at the level of Giannis.

 

[Bjindaho]

Apples to oranges comparisons are stupid. McDavid is clearly the best NHLer by a fair margin right now. Ohtani has one season as the best MLB player (literally 1) but people like to take his unicorn ability to the absurd extreme.

Lebron is the closest to a McDavid (though much later in his career). Ohtani is closer to a Deion Sanders.

 

[theaub]

Bassitt and Berrios both pitching today - have to think Bassitt ends up in the 3 spot with Berrios/Kikuchi rounding it up.

One upside of this three series road trip to start is at least you get Manoah pitching in the home oepner.