Ohtani threw harder than Syndergaard in his first outing

[Chuck]

Shohei Ohtani threw 39 fastballs today... Averaging 97.8 MPH and topped out at 99.6 MPH. He threw harder than Syndergaard in his first outing pic.twitter.com/65L5HCGOYO

— Daren Willman (@darenw) April 2, 2018

[laagamer]

So, Sho-Time porn officially a thing?

[Ohtani&Trout]

Impressive.

[tdawg87]

My bunk is currently being fumigated

[Ordos]

Can he grow a sweet mullet, though?

[Ohtaniland]

Wow if everything lines up correctly Ohtani will be pitching against Oakland, Kansas City, Boston, Houston and a nationally televised Sunday night ESPN game vs the Yankees on April 29th.

[TroutField]

16 minutes ago, OHTANILAND said:

Wow if everything lines up correctly Ohtani will be pitching against Oakland, Kansas City, Boston, Houston and a nationally televised Sunday night ESPN game vs the Yankees on April 29th.

Good tests for him, especially with seeing Oakland in back to back starts. If he pushes through all this okay we can really start to get excited.

[tomsred]

18 minutes ago, TroutField said:

Good tests for him, especially with seeing Oakland in back to back starts. If he pushes through all this okay we can really start to get excited.

Yeah, I want him to go Samurai on The Judge and Stanton.

[Inside Pitch]

Jeff Sullivan@based_ball

 

 

Shohei Ohtani, MLB pitching debut:

92 pitches
98mph average fastball
68% strikes (like 2017 Kluber)
62% contact (like 2017 Betances)

left a few sliders up, but the HR slider wasn't actually that bad

6:23 PM - Apr 1, 2018

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[Blarg]

He only threw 3 curveballs and at 75 mph this could be a huge weapon after a 98 mph fastball.

[Blarg]

I also just noticed that four of Ohtani's six strikeouts were inning enders. That would be interesting to track, how many times he strikes out the last batter of an inning rather than ball in play.

[Chuck]

2 hours ago, Blarg said:

He only threw 3 curveballs and at 75 mph this could be a huge weapon after a 98 mph fastball.

Agree. Remember Percival? Damn 

[Stradling]

It will be very interesting to see how he pitches against Oakland the 2nd time around.

[WeatherWonk]

I am wondering about this penchant for leaving sliders UP. Is it just lack of command, or is this an intentional location? Most of them were up OUT OF THE STRIKE ZONE, leading me to wonder if this is some strategy of his. It's rather dangerous, admittedly.

The HR by Chapman looked like a true curveball to me, rather than a slider. It wasn't that bad of a pitch.

[GrittyVeterans]

Guy's good. He needs some refining, like any 23 year old power pitcher in his first year in the Majors, but he looks plenty acey already.

I think he was definitely worth the hype when it comes to pitching. His batting the jury is still out on

[Angel Oracle]

10 hours ago, tomsred said:

Yeah, I want him to go Samurai on The Judge and Stanton.

Samuraiiiii Pitcher (in best Don Pardo)

[Angel Oracle]

1 hour ago, Chuckster70 said:

Agree. Remember Percival? Damn 

You can say that again.

[yk9001]

So were the Angels playing possum with him all spring?

[Blarg]

I read where he was following his routine for getting ready for the season the way he prepared in Japan. If that included throwing at reduced velocity it could have been just what he does. 

[Chuck]

15 minutes ago, Blarg said:

I read where he was following his routine for getting ready for the season the way he prepared in Japan. If that included throwing at reduced velocity it could have been just what he does. 

Definitely could have been. Give the hitters the perception that his fastball is both straight and only 92-95 MPH, not upper 90's with movement. 

[HaloNArizona]

1 hour ago, Blarg said:

I read where he was following his routine for getting ready for the season the way he prepared in Japan. If that included throwing at reduced velocity it could have been just what he does. 

On the broadcast yesterday they mentioned the same thing.  A former MLB played with Ohtani in Japan and his MO was to take it easy during ST and than flip the switch come regular season.

[Don]

My personal opinion after watching the game yesterday: Dude has elite stuff. Fastball, slider, curve and especially the splitter all looked top notch. His command seemed a bit shaky though, which may just be an early season thing. He got away with some pretty meaty pitches that just weren’t squared up well by the Oakland hitters. He also looks to be a bit slow to the plate. Might be an easy guy to run on (haven’t seen the numbers on his actual times to the plate out of the stretch yet).

 

All in all though, his stuff is dirty. If he commands it well consistently, he’s gonna be tough to hit.

[AngelsLakersFan]

Probably no coincidence that his three hits were consecutive (read, from the stretch)