Minor League Ball Gameday: Monday, April 2nd, 2018

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the Minor League Ball Gameday discussion thread for Monday, April 2nd, 2018. I hope everyone had a good weekend, enjoyed the holiday, and that none of you fell too badly for any April Fool jokes.

Items to discuss today:

****Shohei Ohtani made his major league debut for the Los Angeles Angels and it went well: six innings against the Oakland Athletics for the victory, three hits, three runs, one walk, six strikeouts. This was certainly much better than what he did in spring training and he looked like the pitcher scouts saw in Japan.

His fastball got as high as 100 and he mixed in some very nice secondaries including a vicious 90 MPH splitter. The only glitch was a three-run homer to Matt Chapman in the second inning (2:44 in the video below) but he worked through that and kept the A’s off-balance the rest of the game.

Nobody is going to remember spring training when all is said and done.

****Two prospect injuries of significance over the weekend: Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Jon Duplantier has an injured hamstring and will miss at least two weeks rehabbing in extended spring training. Tampa Bay Rays outfield prospect Garrett Whitley has a torn right labrum and will miss the rest of the season following surgery. That’s his throwing arm so we’ll have to see if there are long-term repercussions.

UPCOMING STUFF:

****We’ll start 2018 MLB draft coverage tomorrow with a look at University of Florida right-hander Brady Singer.