Shohei Ohtani announced himself to the MLB in 2021. In perhaps the first truly superstar level 2-way season since Babe Ruth on the Red Sox, Ohtani threw up ridiculous stats. And while the Los Angeles Angels will be only too glad at his record, the rest of the league will be taking notes this off-season about denying him another year at the top.

Shohei Ohtani is definitely the delight of fans across the MLB. But when he walks out to the home plate, there can’t be too many smiles in the opposite dugout. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plans being made to counter the superstar. But will these plans work?

The incredible form of Shohei Ohtani

Appearing in a podcast with Rob Friedman (more well known by his YouTube moniker, PitchingNinja), Michael Fisher of CodifyBaseball, spoke about planning for Ohtani.

Speaking candidly, he mentioned how there were multiple pitchers who came in to plan against Ohtani, but when a player was in the kind of form that Ohtani was last season, you just can’t account for those things. “It didn’t matter,” said Fisher.

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“When Ohtani was hot, when he was on, it didn’t matter. He would pop that foot down, flatten that bat out and pop it foot 30,” said Fisher. Fisher was utterly bamboozled by the form that Ohtani was showing. At one point, Fisher, just put out an incredulous, “What is that?”, speaking to the quality of skills Ohtani was displaying.

Ohtani was on fire in 2021, getting 46 home runs across the season with a decent at-bats number too.

Read More: Shohei Ohtani Becomes ONLY Player in MLB History to Notch These Stats in 2021

Plans against the Batter

Fisher then went on to explain an elaborate set-up and plan to engage with Ohtani, asking a pitcher to work him really “hot and heavy, up top and in,” as Ohtani has apparently shown a specific weakness against those pitches; Especially when paired with a “change-up, down and away.”

When actually pitched to him in the game, however, Ohtani deposited both those pitches calmly for a homerun. Expressing just sheer confusion at the ability of the LA Angel, Fisher asks, “How were you able to do that?”

He wondered how, with a plan so well thought out, was Ohtani able to just clearly “look at the pitch from ten feet away with the bat there? How did you turn your body so fast?”

Well, if you weren’t aware of his sheer brilliance then, now you well and truly are. Ohtani has incredibly outdone himself and left his counterparts behind, whose attempts to decode his technique were hit out of the park.