Every week we review the nastiest pitches from the previous week in glorious HD GIFs. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite pitch and and check back this weekend to see if it will be in contention for the GIF of the First Half. 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.
Chris Sale’s Slider – How can we not include Sale’s Slider? It’s too deadly of a pitch and as long as he keeps executing them perfectly like the one above to Gary Sanchez, we’ll keep adding it to these roundups.
Jerad Eickhoff’s Curveball – While Eickhoff has struggled to put it all together in the past few weeks, his Curveball is still a dangerous weapon that can end at-bats. It was fun to watch him fan Giancarlo Stanton with the pitch Monday night.
Jeff Samardzija’s Fastball – It’s been a fun ride for Samardzija in San Francisco, sporting a 2.66 ERA across his first nine starts for the club. He continued to impress Thursday night against the Padres, earning one of his eight strikeouts with this perfectly placed Two-Seamer on the outside corner to Melvin Upton Jr. at 95 MPH. (Thanks to Redditors mubbcsoc and rusticate for the tip!)
Rich Hill’s Curveball – Hill’s big looping hook is well known by now, but this pitch is a bit different. Facing left-hander Brad Miller, Hill elected to lower his arm angle even more to get additional sweeping action on his breaking ball, making the pitch dart across the entire plate and ending well in the opposite batter’s box. It’s incredibly difficult to lay-off and impossible to hit.
Rick Porcello’s Fastball – Porcello is able to generate tons of lateral movement on his Fastball, and he used it to perfection against Omar Infante to earn the backwards K. (Thanks to Redditor Karma_Chamillionaire for the tip!)
Zach Britton’s Curveball – Britton isn’t know for his deuce, but we couldn’t help but smile when we saw this Curveball fall in for a strike after Leonys Martin completely bailed from the batter’s box. Best. Strike. Ever. (Thanks to Redditor KRL224 for the tip!)
Noah Syndergaard’s Fastball – It was Thor in his prime Tuesday night as he faced the rival nationals on his home turf. We could have gone with many pitches from his outing, but this 100 MPH heater that perfectly clipped the inside corner against Bryce Harper was divine. (Thanks to Redditors greybro)