Every morning, the We Love Baseball crew reviews the Nastiest Pitches from the previous day’s games in glorious high-definition GIFs. We want to bring you the highest caliber of nastiness possible, so if you see a nasty pitch, please tell us about it. You can tweet @PitcherList to let us know and we’ll give you a shout-out here in the article if your tip makes the cut.
As a bonus for PL+ members, let us know about a pitch on the PL+ Discord in the Nasty Pitches Channel, and if your suggestion is included the next day, you’ll be entered into a weekly drawing for a free T-shirt!
Chris Martin’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/widenastyblackfootedferret
Chris Martin stepped away from baseball for a few years after injuring his shoulder, and during that time he worked at Lowes, UPS, and then an appliance store. Yeah, the guy who threw this filthy split-changeup in the NLCS last night spent the early 2010s working at an appliance store. It’s an incredible story, and I urge you to go read about it because, after reading it myself, I’ve found yet another guy on this Braves team to root for.
Bryse Wilson’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/emptybitesizedargentineruddyduck
Bryse Wilson was the pitcher of the day on Thursday, as he dominated the Dodgers over six innings while striking out five. His lone blemish was a solo home run to Edwin Rios in the third inning, but Wilson got his revenge on this filthy strikeout in Rios’ next at-bat. The Braves are one game away from the World Series.
Luis Garcia’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/ambitiouswarmheartedgreendarnerdragonfly
Luis Garcia started yesterday’s walk-off win against Tampa Bay, and he delivered two innings of shutout baseball before getting replaced by Blake Taylor in the third inning. This filthy changeup starts off well inside and works its’ way back over the middle of the plate right, landing right on the edge of the zone to strike out Austin Meadows.
Andre Scrubb’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/flusteredknobbygenet
Andre Scrubb’s curveball is a thing of beauty, and he uses it here to strike out Yandy Díaz looking. It’s a true 12-6 curve and it earns an enormous 64.2 inches of vertical drop, which is easily above average for 12-6 curves. He’s a guy to watch in 2021 as he works his way up the ladder in Houston’s bullpen.
Brusdar Graterol’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/ediblecheerfulbullmastiff
Brusdar Graterol had a very forgettable outing on Thursday, as he allowed three runs while only recording one out. This 100 MPH filth earned a big whiff from Travis d’Arnaud, who swung for the fences but couldn’t even make contact. Graterol showed flashes of greatness in his first year in Los Angeles’ bullpen, so expect more of him in these parts in 2021.
Shane Greene’s Combo-Filth
https://gfycat.com/dampconcreteindri
To wrap up today’s edition of Nastiest Pitches, I have a bonus double-pitch overlay GIF which shows two absolutely filthy pitches from Shane Greene. Neither were called strikes, for obvious reasons, but the movement these pitches generated was so nasty they were still worth including. For reference, the pitch in yellow is a slider, while the pitch in red is a sinker.
One thing I do want to highlight here is how different each pitch’s arm slot is. Check out this GIF which includes a freeze-frame of the moment the ball is released:
https://gfycat.com/dazzlingfittingblackrhino
Check out where the curveball (yellow) and sinker (red) are released. That’s a pretty apparent difference, right? We talk a lot about pitch tunneling on this site, and these two pitches clearly were not tunneled. I found this interesting as I was creating the GIF so I thought it was worth pointing out.