The Philm Room: Using Tunnels Against a Hitter’s Approach

If you’re familiar with baseball Twitter at all, you have probably seen Rob Freidman aka “PitchingNinja” upload these overlay videos.

Jhoan Duran, 98mph Splinker (called strike) and 88mph (new) Sweeper/Sword, Overlay.

LOL. pic.twitter.com/wFFr2jbTXj

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 16, 2025 That video can sum up the basic explanation of pitch tunneling. A pitcher throwing two pitches out of the same delivery, same arm slot, that look the same until they break. This is very effective because the hitter does not know what the pitch looks like in the milliseconds it takes to decide whether to swing or take.

On the other hand, tunneling inherently can also give the hitter a slight edge in…