Shohei Ohtani and Pitch Tunneling

"Pitch tunneling is not a prerequisite to being a good pitcher." It's a phrase a major league coach told me that sent me down a path of thinking about the importance of pitch tunneling.
After multiple conversations, I settled on splitting tunneling into two parts: repertoire-level tunneling and pitch sequencing, which I break down in this video.
Repertoire-level tunneling is something that statistical endeavors have primarily focused on. Pitch sequencing is something every pitcher tries to do but their level of success varies.
My overall takeaway is we publicly think many more pitchers rely on tunneling for success than those that actually do.
Always open to feedback and thoughts in the comments.
Eli Ben-Porat's video on pitch tunneling can be found here: elibenporat.substack.com/p/pi...
Video via MLB and Baseball Savant
Music via LoFi Girl beats on CZcams - • Morning Coffee ☕️ [lof...
0:00 Intro
0:49 What is tunneling?
2:16 Level 1 Tunneling: Stuff vs Command
3:47 Level 2 Tunneling: Sequencing
4:38 Ohtani doesn't need tunneling
7:29 Key Takeaways

[@pjwesell]

You’re definitely right. Most of the top pitchers today are “stuff” pitchers. I can clearly see this watching my Brewers. Sure Burnes and Woodruff can locate, but the catcher usually sets the target near the middle of the plate and lets the stuff work. I can only imagine if guys like Devin Williams or Aaron Ashby had Maddux-like command 🤮🤮.