Unhittable - by Rob Friedman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The baseball expert famously known as PitchingNinja explores the revolution that has given pitchers an unprecedented advantage in today's game.

Can Tarik Skubal three-peat as AL Cy Young? After winning Rookie of the Year and his first Cy Young, how does Paul Skenes get even nastier? Can Jacob deGrom crack 200 strikeouts again? How will Spencer Strider approach his return to dominance? Which pitchers stand to gain the most from an automated strike zone? And what separates Shohei Ohtani's approach to training from everyone else--why is he the outlier? If you're asking questions like these as the season approaches, Unhittable is just what you've been looking for to prep for Opening Day.

Pitching dominates baseball as never before. Spin rate, sweepers, 105 mph fastballs--all have become standard when evaluating pitching arms and techniques and are familiar lingo in discussion and analysis of the game. Gone is the era of the swaggering power hitters. Batting averages are close to the deadball era; team records for strikeouts are broken and then broken again. The game has fundamentally changed, and hitters may never catch up.

A self-taught coach who has evolved into a top pitching analyst, Rob Friedman has closely observed this revolution that has transformed baseball for both players and fans. Friedman is sought after by players like Cy Young Award-winners Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal, and All-Stars such as Yu Darvish, and he spotlights the influential figures behind this transformation:

• Tom House, a former MLB pitcher turned coaching visionary, utilized cutting-edge technology to refine the techniques of legends like Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson. His unconventional methods paved the way for a new era shaped by the collision of technology and tradition.
• Brent Strom, another MLB pitching insider, has used data to revive flagging careers--helping stars like Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and Charlie Morton to use technology to enhance their performance.
• Kyle Boddy, of Driveline Baseball, has trained elite pitchers such as Trevor Bauer, Shohei Ohtani, and Clayton Kershaw, using advanced analytics and technology, as well as others.

Peppered with insights drawn from interviews with top pitchers, Unhittable is an insider's look at how these advancements have been used by players themselves, and how they have fundamentally changed America's pastime.

Review Quotes

"I started following PitchingNinja back in college and loved how he broke down the pitching side of the game. He considers all aspects of the game: our training, our thought process, and how pitching has evolved over the years. Unhittable gives an insight into the technology, mindset, and work behind being a pitcher in today's game." - TARIK SKUBAL, 2024 and 2025 AL Cy Young Award winner

"Rob Friedman is my favorite baseball analyst. With his deep expertise and unique sense of humor, he has done more than anyone to rekindle my love for America's pastime. Unhittable is a masterpiece of history and analysis to help fans understand why we're living in a golden age of pitching, and how a combination of science and human wisdom has created the greatest generation of pitchers that baseball has ever seen." - DEREK THOMPSON, contributing writer at The Atlantic and coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Abundance

"Long before social media, let alone televised games, baseball players and fans alike marveled at the movement or speed of projectiles as they hurtled toward the plate. Now we are in the golden age to appreciate pitching. Rob has played a part in this revolution, bringing the art of pitching to the masses." - SARAH LANGS, writer and analyst at MLB.com

"Pitching has advanced more in the last decade than it has in the previous century, and Friedman explains how, in riveting detail. In Unhittable, the pages move like a 100-mph fastball. Friedman masterfully captures the state of the game's most important position." - TRAVIS SAWCHIK, New York Times bestselling author of Big Data Baseball and The MVP Machine

"For tons of baseball fans, the whole experience of watching MLB pretty much splits into two eras: before they found PitchingNinja and after. As pitching has taken over modern baseball, Rob walks you through exactly why and how the game has basically turned hitting into a nearly impossible task. Unhittable tackles this shift, using real stories from the pitchers on the mound, giving fans who've never thrown a ball or stood in the batter's box a real appreciation for just how insane the game they're obsessed with actually is." - JIMMY "JOMBOY" O'BRIEN, founder of Jomboy Media and host of the Talkin' Baseball podcast