Shohei Ohtani (2/2) - 2023

 

Shohei Ohtani  🇯🇵 (2023)

Shohei Ohtani (Ōshū, Iwate, July 5, 1994). nicknamed "Shotime", Is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher and designated hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He has previously played in MLB for the Los Angeles Angels and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). 

Because of his elite contributions both as a hitter and as a pitcher, a rarity for two-way players, Ohtani's peak is widely considered among the greatest in baseball history, with some comparing it favorably to the early career of Babe Ruth.

Describing Ohtani in a few words is challenging, especially considering all the awards he has won in MLB. The most notable ones include: Two-time American League MVP (2021, 2023), 3 All-Star Games (2021-2023), American League Rookie of the Year (2018). Additionally, he won the World Baseball Classic in 2023 with Japan and was named MVP of the WBC.

Now we'll look at his role as a Designated Hitter with the Angels. Here you can see the analysis as a pitcher in 2023.

As a batter, he was even more dominant, despite the injuries, he remained at the top in many categories. Ohtani finished the season with .304 batting average, 1.066 OPS, 44 home runs, 95 RBIs, 151 hits and 20 Stolen bases.

He had a 10 WAR, Being above average by far. Additionally, a season is generally considered good if a player achieves a WAR between 3 to 6, while a WAR of 8 or higher is considered MVP-worthy. 

So yes, more than deserved his MVP, his role in the Angels was so unique that he was the only player to have a WAR above 4; the second-best was Mike Trout with a 2.9 WAR.

I must clarify that the rankings are based on a combination of both leagues, in order to assess the significance of performance in categories that feature among the best in MLB.

If you have any questions regarding the types of pitches (Fastball, Changeup, etc.), here is all the necessary information

Enjoy it 🙌

Data provided by Baseball Savant

1- Hits

Ohtani received 2321 pitches, with the main ones being: 29% FS Fastball, 19% Slider, 15% Changeup, 11% Sinker, and 10% Cutter.

Of the 151 hits, 73 were singles, 26 were doubles, 8 were triples, and 44 were home runs. In triples, he ranked fifth in the season, alongside players like: 3-Gunnar Henderson - 9, 2-Corbin Carroll - 10, 1-Bobby Witt - 11.

With the Home runs, Ohtani ranked fourth in the season, in this category the leaders were: 3- Pete Alonso - 46, 2- Kyle Schwarber - 47, 1- Matt Olson - 54. 

In the chart below, we can see the location of the hits, distributed across the field, with the majority in the infield.

Here is a compilation of Ohtani's best plays in 2023:

Ohtani is a power hitter, with stats similar to Aaron Judge or Mike Trout in terms of statistics, as he ranked third in Barrels in the season, with 70, followed by Matt Olson with 73 and Ronald Acuña with 86 barrels. 

Additionally, he was the player with the highest percentage of barrels among his BBE with 19.6%.

In the chart below, we can see a radial chart displaying the launch angle and exit velocity, showcasing Ohtani's incredible power.

An interesting fact is that Ohtani hit the longest home run of the season with 493 ft.

Against Right-Hand Pitchers (RHP): .327 BA, 1.132 OPS, 71 RBI, 33 HR. However, against Left-Hand Pitchers(LHP), he didn't perform as well: .245 BA, .897 OPS, 24 RBI, 11 HR. 

In the chart below, we can see more information about the hits. The distribution was exactly the same in all three zones, showcasing him as a very well-rounded batter.

To add more information about the player, we can see in the chart below, Batted Ball Events (BBE), which represents any batted ball that produces a result(This includes outs, hits and errors. Any fair ball is a Batted Ball Event. So, too, are foul balls that result in an out or an error). This helps identify which pitch types the batter excels against and what kind of hits he produces. 

First, let's examine his performance against each Pitch type, to better understand, we'll divide them into three categories (Fastballs, Breaking balls, and Offspeed balls). 

Against Fastballs (Four-seamer, Sinker, and Cutter), he was the best in the MLB with at least 200 Plate Appearances (PA):

.373 BA, he had 171 BBE, of which 82 were hits(23 HR), 23.1% Strikeout rate, and 25.4% Whiff rate.

Against Breaking balls (Curveball, Slider, Sweeper, etc), he wasn't very dominant, and he faced the most challenges to excel:

.239 BA, 100 BBE, of which 38 were hits(16 HR), 37.7% Strikeout rate, and 40.2% Whiff rate.

Against Offspeed balls (Changeup, Splitter, Forkball, etc), he ranked in the top 10 for the best Batting average(min 100 PA):

.267 BA, 85 BBE, of which 31 were hits, 26.7% Strikeout rate, and 35.9% Whiff rate.

At the end of the chart, we can see the launch angle and exit velocity of the Batted Ball Events (BBE).

At the end of the chart, we can see that a significant percentage of BBE were Topped (launch angle below 0 degrees) with 30.6%, indicating his swing style, aiming for long swings to capitalize on the strength and placement of hits, which often resulted in ground balls with poor outcomes. You can find more about Launch Speed angle here.

Finally, with Runners in Scoring Position (RISP): .317 batting average, 1.079 OPS, 32 hits, 41 RBI, and 26.7% strikeout rate.

2-Plate Discipline

When it comes to plate discipline, we can see that Ohtani, despite producing very good results, also struck out quite a lot, with 143 strikeouts.

Additionally, he had 91 walks, ranking in the top 10 for most walks in the MLB. That's why he was the second-best in OBP with .412, clearly indicating that for a player like him, strikeouts are the consequences of his playing style.

Now, let's talk about Swing and Swing and miss, in general, he had a 32.2% Whiff, ranking in the top 15 with the highest averages.

In the strike zone. He had a 24% Swing and miss rate, ranking in the top 10 with the highest percentage.

Outside the strike zone, he had a 48.5% swing and miss rate, ranking in the top 25 with higher averages.

Before delving further into strikeouts or swings, let's look at the pitch distribution during the 2023 season. The zones are divided into three (Upper, Center, and Lower) to have an overview of the pitch location, and there will be two charts to better appreciate each count.

As mentioned earlier, Ohtani excelled against Fastballs, receiving more of them at 0-0 and 1-1. It's quite clear that he was rarely pitched to in the center zone.

In 0-2 and 1-2 counts, he faced more breaking balls, particularly in the Lower zone, highlighting the difficulties he had in making contact and putting the ball in play.

In 1-2, is where he gets the most strikeouts with 53.

In the second chart, we can see that he faced more pitches in the Center zone. Similarly, in 2-2 and 3-2 counts, we observe an increase in breaking balls, resulting in 38 strikeouts in 2-2 and 28 in 3-2.

In the chart below, we can see the batting average in each count. We can observe that in situations with two strikes overall, he had an average of .180 BA, and when the pitcher had the count advantage, he had a .198 BA. 

In other words, if the pitcher managed to keep the count in their favor, Ohtani struggled to made hits. Therefore, in 0-0, Ohtani made 34 hits, and in 1-0, he made 20 hits.

In counts with zero strikes was where he performed the best, with a .500 batting average, 17 home runs, 41 RBI, and a 1.652 OPS.

And finally, we have the strikes (called strikes and swinging strikes), where primarily fastballs accounted for the most strikes, but breaking balls had the highest Whiff% average with 40.2%.

Additionally, 47% of the strikes were in the lower zone. In the lower zone outside the strike zone is where he had the most strikeouts with 62.