SAPPORO ¨C Shohei Otani has lived up to the hype. Just as Bryce Harper in MLB and LeBron James in the NBA, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters star pitcher/DH not only entered the professional ranks to outsized expectations, he actually met them.
He¡¯s every bit the prodigious talent on the mound he was advertised to be in high school and has ended up perhaps better than excepted as a hitter. The Japanese baseball world was promised a two-way player and someone who could challenge the conventional way of thinking. In his five seasons, that is what Otani has become.
¡°There are a lot who get hyped early but never quite make it, or have solid careers,¡± one MLB scout told The Japan Times. ¡°But he has been hyped since he was young and has lived up to expectations on the mound and with the bat when he¡¯s been healthy. It¡¯s been something to watch him grow and develop and actually turn into what the hype has made him out to be.¡±
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