Yeah, you know how many times Shohei Otani has faced the Mets as a pitcher? As a pitcher.

None. None. Wow. You nailed it. I was going through it. He's never faced the Mets as a pitcher.

The only other team I could see he's also never faced is the Milwaukee Brewers randomly enough.

But he's never faced the Mets. I thought about that because I was like, man, I don't think I've ever scored Shohei Otani pitching other than maybe one of the times he faced the Yankees. I thought we would have talked about it during the NLCS and we didn't. So that's what. Well, because he wasn't pitching in the playoffs, though. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, it never came up. Never came. Yeah, it was never a thing. And when Otani first started doing both or came over and was doing both, I was most fascinated by how you handle it.

Like, you can't pitch and then go become a DH. But baseball obviously changed that rule. And I'm sure there are many Yankee fans who remember it because Otani's made two starts against the Yankees and both of them were disastrous, right?

Two horrible starts against the Yankees. One in 2021, one in 2022. The one in 2021, he lasted two thirds of an inning at Yankee Stadium.

Gave up seven runs and walked four guys, but they didn't change the rule yet. So Otani left the game in the first inning. And I'm sure there were people upset about it. No, it wasn't. I'm sure. That was a huge talking point. People were upset. I think that's part of the reason it ultimately got changed. Yeah, probably. People were spending money to go see Otani and they couldn't see him. So if that had not happened in New York, would the rule have been changed? Yes. Probably, but this really helped push it forward.

That was a big deal at the time.

They were going to change it because there was no reason not to other than me and a curmudgeon saying, why change the rules for one guy? When the reality is the way around it is to just play him in a position. Right. Like, okay, the day you pitch is the one day you play right field or the one day you play whatever position you want to stick them at.

And obviously the Dodgers were never going to do that.

The Angels. Right. Like, okay, the day you pitch is the one day you play right field or the one day you play whatever position you want to stick them at.

And obviously the Dodgers were never going to do that. The Angels were never going to do that.

And so Major League Baseball changed the rules. But nevertheless, Otani is going to pitch tonight. he's going to lead off of the Dodgers

and then as a scorecarder guy

I'm going to write P

next to his name and then I'll write

slash D.H

or whatever the hell I'm supposed to write.

I guess apparently I'm just supposed to keep it as D.H. But I don't know. It's just me. I write P and then slash D.H. Well, he's already on the sheet as the P. So he's the P. No. He's the P. But he's also on the sheet. You have a different slot for the pitcher.

Yeah, so he's in both.

He's in the P, and then he's also in the pitcher slot.

So why are you putting a P next to the D.D.? Because he's the pitcher. That's what his job is. He's the pitcher. Technically, when he's batting, he's technically the D.H for himself. So I should never put P next to his name?

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