Rob Parker: “I’m gonna say something... Are you ready for this? Ohtani has the record, no one has ever done it, he’s just cemented that he’s gonna win the National League MVP... It all counts, no one is saying he didn’t do it, he put in the work... But let’s just call it for what it is. SHOHEI’S 50/50 SEASON IS FUGAZI! It is not real from this standpoint... The bases are too big! He's sliding into pizza boxes at second base! They’re closer at first and closer at second. That’s why no one has ever had 50/50. Last year I said the same thing about Ronald Acuna Jr. when he had 70 some-odd stolen bases. Rickey Henderson might have had 200 stolen bases! You can only throw over twice [in today’s rules]. Shohei has a 92% steal rate. Ninety-two percent?? That’s ridiculous! All I’m saying is – he's a great player, I’m not ordering the pu pu platter saying he’s not great, because he’s a great player, but this record is tainted and fugazi. I’m sorry.
He’s going to go into the record books, everybody’s going to remember that he was the first player to ever do it, all of that... But you can’t look at this honestly and not discount the stolen base part. If you have ‘regular bases’ he’s at 30 some-odd.
I appreciate him as a player and what he’s been able to do by taking advantage of circumstances, and baseball two years ago decided that they wanted to get more stolen bases because it had become a stationary sport with a strikeout or home run. I understood what they were trying to do. All I’m saying is I see all these base stealing numbers and guys are stealing at an incredible rate. Catchers have no shot at throwing out anybody who has speed because it’s a disadvantage. Pitcher throws over twice you know he’s not coming again, you take another step off, and then I’m sliding into an extra large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese.”
Watch Rob Parker of Fox Sports Radio’s The Odd Couple call out Shohei Ohtani’s historic ‘50/50’ season as ‘tainted’ and ‘fugazi’ because of the 2023 MLB rule change that increased the size of all the bases, and in-turn, made the distance between each base 4.5 inches shorter.
From 2022 to 2023 after the new rule was passed, stolen bases across the league increased 41%, and the success rate rose from 75.4% in 2022 to 80.2% in 2023.
Check out the segment above as Parker says you can’t mention Ohtani’ 50/50 without bringing up the new ‘pizza box’ bases, which have effectively made stolen bases a bit of a Mickey Mouse statistic, with Parker saying the catchers have almost no chance to throw out base-runners anymore.
Herd Hierarchy: Colin Cowherd Ranks the NFL's Top 10 Teams After Week 3
Jason Whitlock: Dijonai Carrington's 'Attack' on Caitlin Clark was 'Racist'
Jason Whitlock: WNBA Needs to Suspend 'Deranged Bigot' Dijonai Carrington
Jason Whitlock Says Deion Sanders is a 'Clown' Who Shouldn't Be Celebrated
Colin Cowherd Says the 'Soft' Cowboys Have No 'Culture, Heart, or Soul'
Jason Whitlock Says Dijonai Carrington 'Assaulted' Caitlin Clark In An Attack
Jon Gruden Asked Difficult Questions By Dan Patrick in Rare Interview Appearance
This is How Much Shohei Ohtani's Historic '50/50' Home Run Ball Will Cost
Jason Whitlock Mocks Deion Sanders: 'He's LaVar Ball on Crack'