Here’s another leaderboard Ohtani is climbing

If you had been instructed that Shohei Ohtani is quick, the proper reply can be, “Well, you’re going to have to be more specific.”

His fastball is quick, clearly; it averages 97 mph. His bat is quick; over the previous three seasons, solely three batters have mashed extra balls at 115 mph or extra. His toes are quick, too; final season, no common participant had a quicker home-to-first time than his 4.09 seconds.

But within the context of baseball in 2023, quick means one thing else, too. Thanks to the new pitch timer, which has minimize 27 minutes off the typical time of sport with out sacrificing any motion, each pitcher within the sport has wanted to get shifting just a bit bit quicker — and so they principally all have. Yet, even inside that sport-wide context, nearly no beginning pitcher has elevated their pitching tempo by as a lot as Ohtani has. It is, apparently, simply one other factor he does as properly or higher than most anybody else.

Let’s put some numbers to this. Last 12 months, with the bases empty, Ohtani took 21.7 seconds between pitch releases. (Let’s make clear right here: This isn’t precisely the identical as the way in which the pitch timer works. This quantity exhibits time between the discharge of consecutive pitches, which is an effective estimate of pitcher velocity, however isn’t going to be a 1:1 match to the way in which 2023’s guidelines work.) That was the third slowest of any common Angels pitcher final 12 months and slower than one thing like 90% of all certified pitchers.

It’s a powerful change, and it stands out amongst his friends. Taking all of the pitchers who had at the least 100 pitches with the bases empty each final 12 months and this 12 months … that’s the third-largest drop, each on a uncooked foundation and by proportion.

Largest drops in bases-empty pitch tempo, 2022-23

-8.0 seconds // Michael Kopech (from 21.1 to 13.1)
-7.2 seconds // Tanner Houck (from 20.3 to 13.1)
-6.4 seconds // Shohei Ohtani (from 21.7 to fifteen.3)
-5.2 seconds // Tylor Megill (from 19.3 to 14.3)
-5.0 seconds // Lance Lynn (from 19.3 to 14.3)

What you’re getting, then, is extra Ohtani in much less time, which looks as if a win/win for everybody.

But we’re not getting any much less efficiency, are we? Quite the opposite, actually. Ohtani has allowed all of two earned runs in his first 5 begins (0.64 ERA), and the .092 opposing batting common he’s allowed is merely the bottom in a pitcher’s first 5 begins within the historical past of something resembling trendy baseball, as MLB.com’s Sarah Langs outlined lately, and his subsequent begin, on Thursday afternoon, comes in opposition to the Twenty third-ranked offense of the Oakland A’s.

Yet whereas he’s working quicker, he’s additionally working slower. What we imply by that’s two issues, actually. First, he’s throwing that high-powered fastball lower than ever, all the way down to a career-low 24%. Second, as he’s massively upped the utilization on the sweeping slider he favors as his main pitch — it’s as much as 49% utilization, greater than double the 21% it was two years in the past — he’s additionally barely dropped the rate on it, from 85.3 mph to 83.5 mph.

Take that mixture — the fastball is seen much less, and the sweeper is thrown slower – and what you’ll be able to provide you with is the truth that the share of pitches we see thrown 85 mph or under from him is up significantly from a 12 months in the past.

Ohtani’s % of pitches 85 mph or under
2022 // 25%
2023 // 46%

It doesn’t precisely make him Zack Greinke or Rich Hill, well-known soft-tossers in spite of everything these years within the bigs, however that quantity does put him within the highest 20% of normal beginning pitchers this 12 months — besides most of these guys can’t additionally pull 100 mph out of their again pocket, as Ohtani can.

So, has this mattered? The outcomes are inconclusive this early within the 12 months, when pitchers have made only a few begins and one unhealthy outing can actually torpedo your complete season line, however there’s at the least one fascinating nugget to cross alongside. If we take the ten pitchers who’ve minimize the least time from final 12 months, they’ve as a bunch carried out virtually the identical. If we take the ten pitchers who’ve minimize essentially the most time — i.e., Ohtani and 9 others — they’ve carried out a lot worse, dropping from a .291 wOBA to a .330 mark.

Except, after all, Ohtani (and, additionally from that group, Toronto’s Yusei Kikuchi).

“I feel like I’m being a little bit rushed,” Ohtani stated again in Spring Training, after getting his first style of the pitch timer, “but as long as I keep on getting games under my belt, I’ll be fine.”

He has. And he’s. He’s rushing as much as decelerate. It’s figuring out splendidly.