We're back for a special offseason recap as Spring Training ends and Opening Day is here with the baseball season officially at its start for 2019. This episode breaks down Ohtani winning Rookie Of The Year, the current status of his arm following his Tommy John surgery and his workouts, Angels news with pickups and the big Mike Trout contract, and the retirement of Ohtani's idol Ichiro Suzuki. (To note: Ohtani is scheduled to come back in May, so we will plan to return when he does)

Exactly 100 years ago in 1918, Babe Ruth gave his case for a two-way player. Now, a century later, Shohei Ohtani challenged that. We discuss comparisons between the two players and the two periods of baseball, including their close stat lines and random overall connections. (This is our finale for Season 1, Ohtani's Rookie Year, and we will return in March 2019 for Spring Training of next season)

As Yankees fans ourselves, but also Ohtani supporters, we get into a debate with each other about who should win the 2018 Rookie Of The Year award. Should it be Ohtani or the Yankees own Miguel Andujar? We each take sides and make our cases for who should take the crown.

Recap of the entire rookie season for Ohtani, going back all the way to when the news first broke a year ago of his decision to come to America at the end of 2017. We go through the key events and dates throughout, and what it meant to the bigger picture. Additionally, we mention some newly learned insight from the man himself on his reflections of the year.

Regular season comes to a big conclusion - Ohtani confirms he's getting Tommy John surgery immediately after this last week of games, Mike Scioscia announces he won't be returning as manager for the Angels next year (after 19 years), the discovery is made of Ohtani's spanish singing skills (Despacito!), he talks his final thoughts on the season, and we recap this week's series games against the Texas Rangers and Oakland A's.

(P.S. - More episodes in coming weeks with a recap of the season overall and our Rookie Of The Year debate)

Rough and terrible week for both Ohtani and the Angels. Not anything to do with more injuries to Ohtani, but he's in a hitting slump right now and the team (aside from Mike Trout) is not playing well - including their worst loss of all time. We also discuss Ichiro's new ideas for Ohtani to try for his career, the $150K rookie card auction buy, and in general the road trip games against the Oakland A's and Houston Astros.

We went to a game this week against the Seattle Mariners so we discussed that, Trout and Ohtani having back-to-back dingers, winning the AL Player Of The Week award, his interview with MLB Network, joining Babe Ruth on another record with his 20th home run, Troutani vs. Uptani nicknames, his translator Ippei Mizuhara, and the other series earlier this week against the Texas Rangers.

The dreaded surgery recommendation comes in for Ohtani to get the infamous Tommy John operation on his arm. We break down what it means for both his pitching (not back until at least 2020) and batting (could be hitting all next season!). We also discuss Ohtani firing back at the plate while he continues to DH for the rest of the season, especially on the day of hearing the news, and the series games this week against the Texas Rangers and Chicago White Sox.

A big controversial week as Ohtani makes his pitching return against the Houston Astros, defending World Series champions and current AL West division leaders, in a nationally televised ESPN game. Kev and Jack discuss their opinions on the Angels bringing him back at this time, how the pitching start went, and what we can take away from it.

We also talk about the season-ending surgery of Albert Pujols and what that means for Ohtani and the DH hitting role, as well as the series against the Colorado Rockies that started the week.

Facing real hitters in simulation games, Players Weekend ("Showtime"), Trout returns to the team, 80's night at Angels Stadium, Maldonado reunion, Justin Verlander matchup, conflict with batters getting hit, and the overall series games against the Arizona Diamondbacks and Houston Astros.