[Mick]

1760805197[/url]']
First time I saw Ohtani pitch, the screen popped up which listed his pitches...Most pitchers have three or four pitches, some have five... According to Ohtani's Baseball Savant page, he has thrown at least ten different pitch types in 2024 and 2025. Here's the pitches with # thrown in 2025:

Four-seam fastball (857)
Slider (406)
Sinker (395)
Changeup (370)
Curveball (311)
Cut fastball (213)
Sweeper (181)
Split-Finger (113)
Slurve (15)
Knuckleball (0 in 2025, threw 14 in 2024)

Just an amazing baseball player. And for whatever reason, former Stanford pitcher Erik Miller has his number. Ohtani has one infield single and five strikeouts in six plate appearances against Miller.

Shohei Ohtani Stats: Statcast, Visuals & Advanced Metrics | baseballsavant.com

Highlight added. MLB needs more knuckleballers. IMHO.

Agreed. Wilbur Wood was one of my favorite pitchers when I was growing up, pitched for the white sox. Regular pitcher goes 1-10 for Boston and Pittsburgh, out of MLB at age 24. Learns the knuckleball from Hoyt Wilhelm, tears up AAA, becomes a long reliever and spot starter for the Chisox, they gave him eight starts in 1967 as a 25-year-old. He went 4-2 with a 3.21 ERA, but a 1.86 ERA as a reliever, so he only started two games over the next three years. Wilhelm's advice is that for consistency, a pitcher needs to throw the knuckler all the time, it's not an extra pitch.

So, they make him a starter, he goes 22-13, 1.91 ERA, All-Star, third in Cy Young voting, leads league with 11.7 WAR.  44 starts, and for the next three years, Chicago goes on a three-man pitching rotation, Wood picks up 49 starts, Tom Bradley gets 40, Stan Bansen gets 41, Dave Lemonds does 18 spot starts.  Wood wins 20+ four seasons in a row, 85 complete games in four years. Ron LeFlore hits a hard-line drive through the box, fractures Wood's kneecap and he gets gun-shy, then retires. Still, lots of fun to watch. Knuckleballs are hard to hit and Wood finishes in the Top 10 in strikeouts three times. As a reliever, he led the league in games pitched the three years before he became a starter.

[Mick]

1760805197[/url]']
First time I saw Ohtani pitch, the screen popped up which listed his pitches...Most pitchers have three or four pitches, some have five... According to Ohtani's Baseball Savant page, he has thrown at least ten different pitch types in 2024 and 2025. Here's the pitches with # thrown in 2025:

Four-seam fastball (857)
Slider (406)
Sinker (395)
Changeup (370)
Curveball (311)
Cut fastball (213)
Sweeper (181)
Split-Finger (113)
Slurve (15)
Knuckleball (0 in 2025, threw 14 in 2024)

Just an amazing baseball player. And for whatever reason, former Stanford pitcher Erik Miller has his number. Ohtani has one infield single and five strikeouts in six plate appearances against Miller.

Shohei Ohtani Stats: Statcast, Visuals & Advanced Metrics | baseballsavant.com

Highlight added. MLB needs more knuckleballers. IMHO.

Agreed. Wilbur Wood was one of my favorite pitchers when I was growing up, pitched for the white sox. Regular pitcher goes 1-10 for Boston and Pittsburgh, out of MLB at age 24. Learns the knuckleball from Hoyt Wilhelm, tears up AAA, becomes a long reliever and spot starter for the Chisox, they gave him eight starts in 1967 as a 25-year-old. He went 4-2 with a 3.21 ERA, but a 1.86 ERA as a reliever, so he only started two games over the next three years. Wilhelm's advice is that for consistency, a pitcher needs to throw the knuckler all the time, it's not an extra pitch.

So, they make him a starter, he goes 22-13, 1.91 ERA, All-Star, third in Cy Young voting, leads league with 11.7 WAR.  44 starts, and for the next three years, Chicago goes on a three-man pitching rotation, Wood picks up 49 starts, Tom Bradley gets 40, Stan Bansen gets 41, Dave Lemonds does 18 spot starts.  Wood wins 20+ four seasons in a row, 85 complete games in four years. Ron LeFlore hits a hard-line drive through the box, fractures Wood's kneecap and he gets gun-shy, then retires. Still, lots of fun to watch. Knuckleballs are hard to hit and Wood finishes in the Top 10 in strikeouts three times. As a reliever, he led the league in games pitched the three years before he became a starter.