“It’s getting a little absurd. This shouldn’t be humanly possible. It’s like watching Barry Bonds in his prime, Reggie Jackson in October, and Albert Pujols in a Cardinals uniform,” wrote Bob Nightengale after Shohei Ohtani’s electrifying Game 3 performance. Ohtani is playing on another level, putting on a show so brilliant it’s silencing every doubt that ever trailed him. One of those doubts resurfaced recently through an old fan post — a reminder of how far he’s come since people questioned if he could ever succeed in the big leagues.

It has a March 2018 tweet from Sporting News that highlighted a scout’s quote about Shohei Ohtani: “He’s basically like a high school hitter because he’s never seen a good curveball.” Even Ohtani said about that at one point, “There wasn’t anyone [in the MLB] who was looking at me as a pro baseball player who could bat. I didn’t think I’d have the option of doing both.” And frankly, they look ridiculous next to what we are all watching.

After ending another MVP-caliber regular season, Ohtani’s postseason actually started in a deep slump, where he was just 1-for-18 against the Phillies. But the time of his explosion can not be better. In NLCS Game 4 against the Brewers, he hit three massive home runs while pitching six scoreless innings with ten strikeouts in a single game.

Read it twice! Because he is the first man in history to do that.

And in Game 3 of the World Series, he was perfect 4-for-4 with two doubles and two homers, reaching base every time in his 9 at-bats, with 4 intentional walks and one walk in the 18-inning marathon game.  And that’s exactly why Nightengale wrote it was like watching “Barry Bonds… Reggie Jackson… and Albert Pujols” all in one.

And to be fair, scouts’ reports are not perfect

Baseball history is filled with famous misses. Look at Albert Pujols. When he was drafted in the 13th round, one report said he only had “mistake HR power.” Pujols went on to hit 703 home runs.

Then there is Mike Piazza. Piazza was a 62nd-round pick as a favor. But he became the best-hitting catcher in baseball history. The list keeps going. Nolan Ryan was a 12th-round pick in 1965 who became the all-time strikeout king with 5,714 Ks.

And others like Andre Dawson (11th round) and Jim Thome (13th round) also became Hall of Famers. Even Tony Gwynn had a report calling him “average.”

But that does not mean scouting is worthless. Because when they are right, everything changes. A 1987 report on Ken Griffey Jr. was perfect, which reported, Griffey had “all the tools to be a superstar.” And a 1986 report on Bo Jackson that called him the “greatest pure athlete in America” was spot-on, and a 2006 report on Clayton Kershaw that said he had a major league curveball was spot-on. In successful cases, scouts find the talent that wins championships.

And championships are exactly what Ohtani and the Dodgers are fighting for right now in the World Series.

This 2025 World Series has already been a classic. Game 1 saw Addison Barger hit the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history when the Jays crushed the heavily favored Dodgers 11-4.

In Game 2, Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched a rare complete game, retiring the final 20 batters to win 5-1.

Then came the marathon Game 3, which extended to 18 innings, and at one point, legendary pitcher Clayton Kershaw needed to clear the bases in the 12th inning for the first time in his career.

The Dodgers eventually won the game 6-5 and got the series lead 2-1 after a Freddie Freeman walk-off home run.

And Ohtani? After hitting a 2-run homer in the middle of the “We don’t need you!” chant in Toronto’s Rogers Center, he delivered a historic performance in Game 3. But he is not done yet.

He is scheduled to start Game 4 against Blue Jays pitcher Shane Bieber, after playing all 18 innings in which he was at base 9 times. So, the so “high school hitter” is now the center of the baseball universe, but where is the scout now?