Shohei Ohtani is the best pitcher in baseball. At least that’s the story the numbers tell on his last 20 starts. Ohtani leads the majors in ERA (1.59) and FanGraphs’ pitching WAR (4.9) in his last 20 starts, coinciding with the Angels using PitchCom to pass pitch selection to Ohtani beginning June 9 of last season.
He continued to raise the bar last night, opening the season with six scoreless innings, zero runs allowed and 10 strikeouts against the Athletics in an eventual 2-1 loss. By far the most impressive part, he did it while calling his own pitches on PitchCom, according to an ESPN story, rather than relying on the catcher. The kicker, he memorized the keyboard to key in the numbers, instead of wearing it on his wrist or forearm like other pitchers.
It’s the first time pitchers have been allowed to control PitchCom, which is a necessity for Ohtani based on the pitch clock and his vast repertoire of pitches. Now he no longer has to go through the song and dance to shake off the catcher’s call. Now in complete control, Ohtani can build on the aforementioned impeccable numbers he’s put up since the Angels first started using PitchCom with him last June.
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In addition to leading the majors in ERA (1.59) and throwing fWAR (4.9) in his last 20 starts, he is also second in strikeouts (164) and third in opposing batting average (.184) during that span.
Not only has he been arguably the best pitcher in baseball. It is one of the most dominant pitching runs in recent American League history. Five AL pitchers in the past 50 seasons had an ERA this low (1.59) and this many strikeouts (164) in a span of 20 starts. Justin Verlander (2017-18), Corey Kluber (2017), Johan Santana (2004-05), Pedro Martínez (1999-00) and Roger Clemens (1997). All of those pitchers won a Cy Young award during those runs, except for Verlander, who won a World Series in that stretch. I’m sure Ohtani wouldn’t mind either.
Since the PitchCom switch was made, Ohtani relies a lot more on his sweeping slider. He throws it 41 percent of the time in his last 20 starts, compared to 23 percent in his previous 44 starts. According to Statcast, it is the second most valuable pitch in baseball (-22.2 run value) over his last 20 starts, behind Dylan Cease’s slider. It’s the same pitch he used to knock out Mike Trout to end the World Baseball Classic. And of course, it’s set up by a three-digit fastball and a nasty splitter that hitters should keep in mind.
Oh by the way, Ohtani also hit 23 home runs during this span when he was the best pitcher in baseball. His hitting fWAR (3.2) is 29th in baseball during that time. Just when you think Ohtani has reached his ceiling, he found a way to rise to another level, and if Thursday’s results are any indication, another jump may be in store in 2023.