Every morning we review the nastiest pitches from the previous day’s games in glorious HD GIFs. . Did we miss your favorite pitch? Send us a tweet next time @ThePitcherList and we’ll GIF it up + give you a shoutout here in the article.
Brad Hand’s Fastball – I wanted to lead with a pitch that most likely was completely forgotten about in the grand scheme of the game, but deserves plenty of extra looks as Hand tossed a 95mph Fastball with more depth than other pitchers’ sliders during the event. No wonder Gary Sanchez came up empty handed.
Dellin Betances‘ Curveball 1 – We could have featured a pair of pitches from multiple arms last night, but each of these pitches needed their own spotlight. First is this Curveball that should have been strike three as it buckled Giancarlo Stanton in the box and landed right along the inside corner. So nasty.
Dellin Betances‘ Curveball 2 – Then in his next batter, Betances tossed another Curveball that made us giddy. Rarely do you see a batter actively try to avoid getting hit while taking a full hack at the pitch, but then again, Daniel Murphy is a special man.
Wade Davis‘ Cutter – He turned into the goat of the game, allowing the extra-inning HR to Robinson Cano, but that doesn’t mean Davis didn’t get to show off a good pitch or two. His prettiest pitch has always been his Cutter/Slider and this one that somehow found the outside corner is startling to say the least.
Alex Wood’s Fastball + Changeup – If you didn’t fully understand why Wood has been successful this season, allow this GIF to enlighten you. Wood is excellent at keeping the ball down in the zone, while masking his pitches effectively and combined both talents into an 0-2 quickly against Jonathan Schoop. First is a pinpointed Fastball on the corner followed by a Changeup that looks to be heading to the same spot before diving under the zone. Simply perfect execution.
Craig Kimbrel’s Curveball – It was a laborious inning for Kimbrel, but man did his Knuckle-Curveball look good. There’s nothing quite like making a stud like Paul Goldschmidt flinch mightily in the box on a pitch that lands near the middle of the plate.
Chris Devenski’s Changeup – The famous “Circle of Death” did it’s job against the National League stars, fanning Joey Votto first before making a joke of Cody Bellinger. Check out the incredible drop on the pitch as the NL ROY front-runner missed the pitch by a mile.
Chris Sale’s Slider – Sale’s Slider is getting more attention in the First Half GIF Tournament after barely squeaking out of the first round and he put the pitch on display last night in Miami as he got Marcell Ozuna to offer a huge whiff over the pitch as it dove under the slugger’s bat. It’s just too filthy.
GIF Of The All-Star Game
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Nick, I thought you might find this interesting. At home against left-handed hitters Teheran has an 11.21 ERA, .324 BAA, 4.1 HR/9, 7.6 BB/9 and a 28.6% HR/FB%. On the road against left-handed hitters Teheran has a 2.19 ERA, .237 BAA, 1.1 HR/9, 4.4 BB/9, and a 9.4% HR/FB%. 4.4BB/9 is still awful but the other numbers are in stark contrast to each other. (By the way, Mike Foltynewicz’s numbers show a similar pattern against lefties at home.) Heat maps show that Teheran is not getting the outside sixth of the plate when pitching at Sun Trust Park. Strikes in the outside zones are being called balls. When Teheran moves his pitches in he is getting tagged. Apparently Tyler Flowers is very good at framing pitches and other pitchers are getting the outside zone. Isn’t this odd? Most of this comes from the article The Big Squeeze (6/16/17) on Big Time Atlanta Sports. By the way, I never looked at baseball this way. Ever. Thanks.