Shohei Ohtani's first half: Is Shohei Ohtani really better than Mike Trout?

Shohei Ohtani batting in the 2021 MLB All-Star Game at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, on July 13th, 2021

Photo Credit: https://www.thespec.com/ts/sports/baseball/2021/07/14/sho-case-shohei-ohtani-gets-all-star-win-for-al-bats-too.html

Shohei Ohtani advanced himself and his teammates four bases out of 27 possible bases last night (Friday) in their 6-5 loss vs. the Seattle Mariners. He had a two-run single which scored Luis Rengifo and David Fletcher.

I want to take a look back at the first 89 games of the 2021 Major League Baseball regular season for Shohei Ohtani and compare it to Mike Trout. I believe all of the information in the rest of this story applies right before the 2021 All-Star Game unless otherwise specified.

Before the All-Star Game, Shohei Ohtani advanced himself and his teammates 388 bases out of a maximum total of 1,828 bases (.212) when he is penalized for every play that does not result in a home run (including taking a base on balls, also known as a walk, or getting hit by the pitch).

Ohtani has advanced himself and his teammates 388 bases out of a total of 1,666 bases (.233) when he is not penalized for taking a base on balls (a walk) or getting hit by the pitch. Shohei is penalized for the numerator and denominator in this case, but he is not penalized for bases it is impossible for he and his teammates to reach when a walk or hit by pitch happens.

He has advanced himself and his teammates 1.131 bases per plate appearance through the first 89 regular season games.

Shohei has advanced himself and his teammates at least one base 123 times for the Angels to score 123 runs so far this season. Ohtani also has advanced himself and his teammates at least one base and he and his teammates have scored 53 runs when he did not get credit for an RBI. In other words, non-RBI RBI's. Shohei and his teammates have also scored 76 runs this season when they needed the next batter/hitter to drive them in to score.

Ohtani has scored 32 runs this season when he did not hit a home run or he traveled around the bases in one shot before the next pitch to the next batter is delivered (such as a Little League home run I guess). He has hit 33 home runs this season (with 21 of those being solo home runs, 10 2-run homers and two 3-run homers) and 47 runs have scored on his 33 home runs. Shohei himself has scored six runs so far this season when he scores when one of his teammates homers.

He has advanced himself and his teammates to total 72.50 runs scored, or what I like to name it as true RBI’s, which includes official errors from the official scorer and also mistakes that are not errors (like wild pitches).

Each run that scores is worth 1.00 run and a batter who singles and then who eventually scores by another batter gets .25 credit worth of that run.

For true RBI’s, each player gets credit for the credit he is due when advancing himself and his teammates, but each hitter/batter actually has to move their teammates at least one base.

Unlike RBI’s which only credit runs that are driven in by the batter/hitter, I give credit for true RBI’s for every run that scores, regardless of if the batter/hitter drives the baserunner in who scores or not.

The batter/hitter (Jared Walsh) gets true RBI credit for advancing himself in any way (as long as he scores eventually) and also for actually driving in the baserunner(s) (Ohtani), when Ohtani cannot advance on his own via or through the following things: his own hit, reaching base via an error, stolen base, wild pitch, passed ball, balk or any kind of error that does not include a batter/hitter initially getting on-base (since I already mentioned that, for reaching on an error, already in this sentence).

The baserunner (Ohtani) also gets true RBI credit when he steals a base or bases, advances on a wild pitch, passed ball or balk or somehow advances when the ball is not put in play by the batter/hitter on an error such as a pickoff attempt by the defense.

That means the batter/baserunner gets credit for actually advancing himself and his teammates at least one base (think in terms of RBI’s) when he and his teammates actually and eventually score.

For true RBI’s, for example, an RBI single from third base only counts as .25 runs scored and not a full 1.00 run scored.

Exclusively for Ohtani, he has advanced himself 46.25 runs (true RBI's) out of the maximum number of the total runs he has scored this season (in this case, 65 runs). In other words and so people understand, he cannot score more than one run per plate appearance when he scores a run when I am exclusively talking about Ohtani’s true RBI’s for him alone.

Shohei has advanced his teammates 26.25 runs out of the maximum number of 58 runs that his Angels teammates have scored and not Ohtani scoring.

How do I get that number? Easy. I take 123 runs the Angels have scored when Ohtani has contributed to those runs eventually score minus Ohtani’s 65 runs he has scored which equals 58.

I also have another statistic called true runs in which it simply is an indicator of how much time a batter which turns into a runner/baserunner spent time on the bases.

So if a player gets .75 true runs it means you likely came into pinch-run for the person who got on-base to first base or you advanced three bases and then were replaced for a pinch runner.

A full run, 1.0 runs, means that you spent all of your time on the bases and no one came in to pinch-run for you.

Ohtani has 65 true runs this season and he has scored 65 runs which means he is 100% responsible for all of the runs he has scored this season.

So to have the full picture or image on Shohei's run production, you take the 65 runs he has scored and add it to his true RBI’s of 26.25 in exclusively advancing his teammates for a grand total of 91.25 runs.

The reason I use Ohtani’s 65 runs is that is his entire run production exclusively for himself without involving anyone else (except the people who drove him in to score those runs).

I also do not want to count Shohei scoring the same run twice, in other words conflating the information, or, giving him credit for two runs when he simply hits a solo home run (one run).

Ohtani has scored 65 runs and has 70 runs batted in (RBI’s) through the first half of this season right up until before the All-Star Break which is a total of 89 regular games.

Before the All-Star Game, Shohei has a batting average of .279, an on-base percentage of .364, a slugging percentage of .698 and an on-base plus slugging percentage of 1.062.

In 301 at-bats and 343 plate appearances, he had 84 hits, 210 total bases, 19 doubles, 4 triples, 33 home runs, 38 walks, five intentional walks and struck out 98 times. He also had three hit by pitches, zero sacrifice bunts and one sacrifice fly.

Shohei has 12 stolen bases this season and has been caught stealing four times.

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Mike Trout has advanced himself and his teammates 140 bases out of a maximum possible of 771 bases (.182) when he gets penalized for every play that does not result in a home run during the 2021 Major League Baseball regular season.

If you don’t penalize Trout for receiving a base on balls, also known as a walk, or getting hit by the pitch, he has advanced himself and his teammates 140 bases out of a maximum possible of 653 bases (.214).

I still give him numerator credit (like in mathematics), but I don’t penalize him on the denominator side of things (again, mathematics), in which Mike cannot make it to second base or any other base after that, for example, on a hit by pitch.

However, I do penalize him for making it to first base and for any baserunners who are forced to move up a base (so the percentage on any plate appearance will never be more than 100%. Also the percentage on any plate appearance on a hit by pitch or base on balls will always be 100%, when Trout and his teammates are not penalized for not making it to bases that are impossible for them to get to).

Trout has advanced himself and his teammates 0.959 bases per plate appearance this season.

Mike has advanced himself and his teammates at least one base 40 times to score 40 Angels runs this season. Trout also has advanced himself and his teammates at least one base and he and his teammates have scored 22 runs when he did not get credit for an RBI. Mike and his teammates have scored 29 runs this season when they needed the next hitter/batter to drive them in to score.

Trout has scored 15 runs this season when he did not hit a home run or he traveled around the bases in one shot and scored before the next pitch to the next batter is delivered. Mike has hit 8 home runs this season (with 3 two-run homers) and 11 runs have scored on his eight home runs. Trout has scored four runs so far this season when one of his teammates hits a home run.

He has advanced himself and his teammates to total 19.25 runs scored, or what I have named true RBI’s.

Mike himself exclusively (no one else) has advanced himself for 13.25 true RBI’s out of a maximum possible total of 23 true RBI’s (since that is how many runs he has scored this season).

Trout has advanced his teammates for a total of six true RBI’s out of a maximum total of 17 true RBI’s (again, since that is how many runs Trout's teammates have scored when he has advanced his teammates at least one base and they eventually score).

He also has 23 true runs this season which simply means no teammate has got on-base for him all season long when he eventually scored.

So Mike is 100% responsible for scoring all 23 of his runs he has scored so far this season.

For the full picture or image on Trout’s run production this season, you will need to take the 23 runs he has scored and add six true RBI’s for his teammates exclusively and you get a grand total of 29 runs.

Mike Trout has advanced himself when nobody has been on base 58 bases out of a maximum number of 332 bases (.175).

Trout has an on-base percentage of .315 when he gets on-base via a walk and later scores (and only the bases on balls for runs that eventually score are in the numerator). Mike has eventually scored five times when he has received the base on balls.

Mike has scored 23 runs and has 18 RBI’s so far this season.

Trout has a .333 batting average, .466 on-base percentage, .624 slugging percentage and a 1.090 on-base plus slugging percentage.

Before the All-Star Game in 117 at-bats and 146 plate appearances, he had 39 hits, 73 total bases, 8 doubles, 1 triple, 8 home runs, 27 walks, five intentional walks, 41 strikeouts, two hit by pitches, zero sacrifice bunts and zero sacrifice flies.

Mike has two stolen bases this season and has not been caught stealing so far.

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Let’s be honest. Everyone wants to know, who has been a better player during the 2021 Major League Baseball regular season, Shohei Ohtani or Mike Trout?

Mike Trout has had 146 plate appearances this season. As I previously mentioned, his success rate in advancing himself and his teammates is 140 bases out of 771 (.182).

So what about Ohtani? In 146 plate appearances this season, Shohei has advanced himself and his teammates 151 out of a maximum total of 789 bases (.191). Ohtani has a better success rate/percentage than Trout.

To make it even more fair to Trout, I can line up approximately the same maximum number of bases Ohtani could advance himself and his teammates.

What does that tell us? Here it is. Shohei has also advanced himself and his teammates 148 bases out of a maximum total of 770 bases (.192) in 142 plate appearances and 148 bases out of a maximum total of 774 bases (.191) in 143 plate appearances. So Ohtani’s success rate is still better.

If we look at Trout and Ohtani’s success rate when they don’t get penalized for walking or getting hit by the pitch, Trout has advanced himself and his teammates 140 bases out of 653 possible bases (.214). Shohei in 146 plate appearances, has advanced himself and his teammates 151 bases out of 747 possible bases (.202). Trout’s percentage is better.

Again, compared to Trout, if I line up approximately the same maximum number of bases Ohtani could advance himself and his teammates, Shohei is 141 for 652 (.216) in 125 plate appearances and 143 for 658 (.217) in 126 plate appearances. So the percentage in this case favors Ohtani.

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In 146 plate appearances, the number of plate appearances Mike Trout has so far this season, Ohtani scored 26 runs and advanced his teammates to score 11 true RBI’s. This can also be said for 142 and 143 plate appearances. So Shohei is better than Trout in terms of run production as Trout’s run production is 23 runs and 6 true RBI’s for his teammates.

In 125 plate appearances, Ohtani scored 23 runs and advanced his teammates to score 10.5 true RBI’s. Trout tied with Ohtani in runs scored.

In 126 plate appearances, Shohei scored 24 runs and advanced his teammates to score 10.75 true RBI’s. Again, Ohtani beats Trout in run production.

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In 146 plate appearances, Ohtani’s batting average is .263, his on-base percentage is .308, his slugging percentage is .584 and his on-base plus slugging percentage is .892. Trout is better than Shohei in all of these categories.

In 125 plate appearances, Shohei had a .274 batting average, a .320 on-base percentage, a .641 slugging percentage and a .961 on-base plus slugging percentage. Ohtani's slugging percentage was the only thing higher than Trout’s.

In 126 plate appearances, Ohtani had a .280 batting average, a .325 on-base percentage, a .644 slugging percentage and a .969 on-base plus slugging percentage. Again, only Shohei’s slugging percentage is better than Trout’s season total.

So all in all, Ohtani stole Trout’s #2 spot in the batting order and he is better than Trout for now in terms of offense/run production. Ohtani maybe would not have a better run production than Mike Trout if Shohei did not advance himself and his teammates as often as he has this season.