Shohei Ohtani tears UCL, won’t pitch rest of this season

Shohei Ohtani won’t pitch for the rest of the season because of a tear in an elbow ligament, Los Angeles Angels general manager Perry Minasian said Wednesday night. The Angels don’t yet know whether Ohtani will need surgery to repair the UCL ligament.

Ohtani was pulled in the 2nd inning of game 1 of the Angels doubleheader vs the Reds due to arm fatigue. Ohtani average velocity on Wednesday was 84.7 MPH. His average 4-seam fastball velocity was 94.4. Both were the lowest in a game in his career.

This isn’t the first time Ohtani has dealt with injuries in his MLB career. He previously had Tommy John surgery in October of 2018 after suffering a sprained UCL in June of that year.

On the mound Ohtani led MLB in opponent batting average, ranked 4th in K per 9, 5th in WHIP and 8th in ERA. He will not qualify for any of these at the end of the season due to innings pitched.

While team’s feared Ohtani on the mound, he was just as dangerous at the plate… especially when pitching. He finished with a 1.220 OPS in games where he started at pitcher, which is the highest OPS in pitching starts in a season since 1900 (min. 50 PA).

In the 1st inning of game 1 of the doubleheader, Ohtani hit his MLB-leading 44th HR. His 44 HR are 4 shy of breaking the Angels’ single-season record.

Just how rare is Ohtani’s 2023 season, there have been 359 instances of a player hitting 40 HR in a season, 2,522 instances of a pitcher recording 150 K in a season, but only 2 instances of a player doing both in the same season… Ohtani in 2021 and 2023.

Ohtani is one of 4 Angels players in franchise history to win the MVP award and he was the odds on favorite to win it this season. The last time the odds were offered was on August 14th, Ohtani was -10000 to win his 2nd MVP award.

Shohei Ohtani is the crown jewel of the 2024 MLB free agent class and is expecting a large payday. Currently his teammate Mike Trout has the largest contract by total value in MLB history at 12-years, $426.5M.

More on this later today on the Shemon and Sheppard Show 2-6pm.

College football is back baby! This weekend we kickoff a glorious 16 week march to find out what four teams will be in the College Football Playoff. Week 0 historically gives us not so great matchups. However it is football and it's nice to watch a full game where the outcome means something. I'm not trying to take a shot at NFL preseason, but the second halves of games are difficult to watch. The college football TV schedule is usually hectic. But in week 0 with only seven games, it is much more manageable than your average college football Saturday. The only network channel that is carrying a game this weekend is NBC. The 13th ranked Fighting Irish are finally getting their chance at taking on Navy in Ireland. This game- scheduled for 2020- had to be postponed due to the COVID19 pandemic. I'm glad that's over.

Out of the 14 teams playing this weekend, only two are ranked; Notre Dame and USC. Both are huge betting favorites with the Irish 20.5 point favorites and USC laying 31 to San Jose State. Notre Dame playing in Ireland against Navy will be the best spectacle of the weekend, or at least it should have been. Hawaii is traveling all the way across the country to take on Vanderbilt. Unfortunately they will not get the full experience as Vanderbilt's stadium is undergoing renovations and will only hold 28,000 this season.. Florida International is the only school from Florida taking the field this weekend. They are in Ruston Louisiana taking on the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs. Here's the college football TV schedule for Week 0.

The college football season kicks off with one of the sports biggest brands taking on one of the academy schools. Normally I am against neutral site games in college football. However the Irish playing in Ireland makes all the sense in the world.

Hey, it's football. So sit down and watch the game. Vegas is telling you this is supposed to be a good one as well with the game a pick em'.

The Panthers will start their 2023 campaign on the road in Ruston Louisiana. FIU is an 11-point underdog in the game, even though La Tech is coming off a 3-9 season.

The worldwide leader in sports only has one college football game in week 0. And UMass is arguably the worst program in FBS right now coming off of a 1 win season. And that win was against Stoneybrook. I honestly did not know they had a team. New Mexico State however is coming off a respectable 7-6 season with a win over Bowling Green in their bowl game.

Vanderbilt ended 2022 on a bit of a high note with wins over Florida and Kentucky. But the fan base is once again the butt of jokes as their stadium will only hold 28,000 this season due to contraction on both endzones. I feel bad the Hawaii kids won't get to experience a full SEC stadium, even if it's only Vanderbilt.

I'm still wondering why ESPN opted for UMass over USC. This game is expected to be a blowout, but Caleb Williams is entering the season with as much preseason Heisman hype as anyone since Tim Tebow came back for his senior season with the Gators. You probably don't even know if you get the PAC 12 Network, so do some homework before you start scrambling 2 minutes before kickoff.

This matchup might not excite the casual college football fan. But this is a matchup of two bowl teams from last year that finished the season with a winning record. The Aztecs are 2-point favorites in a matchup that should be tightly contested.