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Hall of Famer Randy Johnson is undoubtedly one of the greatest pitchers in the history of the game of baseball.
During his 22 seasons in Major League Baseball, Johnson went 303-166, had an ERA of 3.29, and racked up 4,875 strikeouts.
Johnson — who BroBible actually chatted with earlier this week about his infamous bird-exploding pitch being honored in the Hall of Fame — is a five-time Cy-Young winner, a ten-time All-Star, and a World Series champion/MVP. He led the majors in strikeouts nine times, ERA four times, and earned the pitching Triple Crown in 2002. He’s got both a no-hitter and a perfect game under his belt, too.
Thus, if anyone would know how to possibly slow down Los Angeles Dodgers juggernaut designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, it’s Randy Johnson, who recently broke down what his approach to pitching to Ohtani would be while appearing on The Dan Patrick Show.
The premise of Johnson’s approach is based around Ohtani being a lefty and what that means about the trajectory of his “swing plane.” Eventually, toward the end of the clip (the whole thing is worth watching), Johnson boiled down his approach to this:
“I would start off, whether it was a ball or strike, letting him know that I’m pitching in, get him off the plate, and then I would try to elevate pitches — I wouldn’t pitch down and in — I would elevate. But I know he can hit a ball up, too, and then I would work him down and away.”
Randy Johnson explains how he’d go about pitching to Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge pic.twitter.com/Sh4ds5nRng
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) October 24, 2024
Johnson was also asked how he would pitch to New York Yankees star outfielder Aaron Judge, saying he would treat him like Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, hilariously admitting that when he’d make a mistake against Thomas, he’d hit the ball so hard that it’s likely “still orbiting somewhere.”
You can check out Johnson’s entire conversation on The Dan Patrick Show below.