Used to pitching short innings, free-agent reliever Adam Ottavino is long on confidence.
Ottavino, who had 112 strikeouts in 77⅔ innings with a 2.43 ERA in 2018 for the Colorado Rockies, is pitching himself to teams around the league now that he’s a free agent.
That being the case, he went on the Statcast podcast on Monday and talked up how he would have performed against one of the best hitters in MLB history, Babe Ruth.
Here’s what the 33-year-old had to say: “I had an argument with a coach in Triple-A about Babe Ruth’s effectiveness in today’s game. I said, ‘Babe Ruth, with that swing, swinging that bat, I got him hitting .140 with eight homers.’ He was like, ‘Are you nuts? Babe Ruth would hit .370 with 60 homers,’ and I’m like, ‘I would strike Babe Ruth out every time.’”
The lanky right-hander went on to say he didn’t want to disrespect Ruth but the game, and the times, had simply changed since the Sultan of Swat was crushing baseballs.
“I mean the guy ate hot dogs and drank beer and did whatever he did,” Ottavino said. “It was just a different game.”
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