Angels Expert Gives Final Word on Insane Shohei Ohtani Debate
Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani is nearly the perfect baseball player. He's one of the best pitchers in the league and one of the best hitters in the league as well. Combine both of those abilities, and you have the best baseball player on the planet.
There's nothing Ohtani can't do on the field, and the debate of who would win a matchup: Ohtani the pitcher or Ohtani the batter, is one hot debate. Just ask MLB writer Kerry Miller, who broke down what would be the matchup of the century. There are a ton of hoops Miller goes through, but here is what he had to say about the ultimate matchup.
Miller starts by saying the pitcher would dominate if this matchup took place earlier in his career. The 28-year-old had 31 homers on fastballs out of his 40 in 2018 and 2019, so advantage of the pitcher in the early years; however, that has changed over the years. In 2021, Ohtani, the hitter, had 23 homers that came on non-fastballs, especially the slider.
Ohtani, the hitter, is only slugging .551 against right-handed batters, and the pitcher is incredible against left-handed batters, as they're only batting .215 with a .352 slug.
With Miller spewing a lot of numbers and explanations, he ultimately came to a conclusion and went with Shohei, the pitcher.
In a single at-bat, give me Ohtani the Pitcher, no questions asked. While it's plausible Ohtani the Hitter could tee off on the pitcher's sweeper, there's no need for the pitcher to use it. He could just give himself a steady diet of splitters.
What if we're not talking about just one at-bat, though?
What if it's an entire season in which Ohtani the Hitter only faces Ohtani the Pitcher and vice versa?
He can't very well just throw a few thousand splitters like some kind of knuckleballer, right?
Ohtani would end up throwing a lot of sweepers and a lot of four-seamers, which his bat-wielding clone would be more than capable of hitting a long way.
Each would get the best of the other, and this matchup is unrealistic unless we dream about it.
