Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan had a career 3.19 ERA across an absurd 27 years in MLB, along with eight All-Star nods and a pair of ERA titles. With his untouchable record of 5,714 strikeouts across a long and formidable career, Ryan was known for his blistering fastballs, but also posessed a powerful twelve-to-six curve and a circle change in his arsenal.
Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani recently collected incredibly high praise from pitching coach Mark Prior in a conversation on the Dan Patrick Show with the sportscasting icon.
Prior spoke on seeing shades of the Hall of Fame hurler in Ohtani’s pitching game, which is still working to be fully ramped up in a Dodgers uniform.
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“It’s got a little bit of Nolan [Ryan] in him,” said Prior. “If he wants to just rear back and blow it by you, like, he’s going to do it. I think we’ve seen that, and obviously he has a very good and very nasty sweeper, but if he wants it he’s going to get 100 [mph] and he’s going to throw it right past you.”
Ohtani hit 101.7 mph on a fastball in June against the Kansas City Royals. This season, Ohtani’s four-seamer averages 98.2 mph, beating out his average heater the last time he was pitching regularly in 2023, a mark of 96.8 mph.
The two-way superstar is still working to fully get back into his pitching work while also being an elite hitter, but it is hard to comprehend the pitching that Ohtani provides to a hampered Dodgers pitching roster, while also leading the National League in slugging percentage, OPS, runs scored, and is second in home runs (44).
Perhaps Ohtani’s best pitching season in MLB, where he is working to get back to, included a 2.33 ERA across 166 innings of work, a league-leading 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings, and finishing fourth in American League Cy Young voting.
“We have a lot of guys who throw extremely hard in this league, and so the velocity is not nothing, but it isn’t as…unexpected as it used to be, but all of a sudden, this dude just out of nowhere is 100, 101, 102, and so that reminds of watching Nolan when I was a kid where it was just like, ‘alright, he knows I’m throwing a fastball, and here it is, and see what you can do with it’ and that’s pretty cool,” Prior said.
“As a coach, it’s one thing, but as a fan to watch him do what he does is pretty awesome.”
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Photo Credit: Peter Aiken-Imagn Images
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One Response
Can’t go down that road Mark Prior. Nolan Ryan just overwhelmed batters with his fastball and his curve was as devastating as Sandy Koufax’s and Bert Blyleven’s curve balls. He walked a lot of batters but when he was on, no one could touch him. I’m a many decades long Dodger’s fan, but Shohei has a long ways to go to match Nolan Ryan.