Every morning we review the nastiest pitches from the previous day’s games in glorious HD GIFs. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite pitch and check back this weekend to see if it will be in contention for the GIF of the Second Half Contest. 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.
Congrats to Chris Sale’s Sliders for winning Nastiest Pitching GIF of the Week! It’s hard to deny Sale of another weekly victory when he has one of the most beautiful Sliders in the game.
Jake Arrieta’s Fastball – Arrieta has been in a groove and continued dominating as he faced the Diamondbacks on Sunday. Sinkers are much more in the gameplan than before, which should come as no surprise when you take a look at the movement he gets on the pitch to Paul Goldschmidt. Yeesh. (Thanks to @chrisnance34 for the tip!)
Dellin Betances‘ At-Bat – We’ve been doing more at-bat GIFs lately, which let us show the sequencing involved that makes some pitches extra filthy. For example, in this AB Betances hit the corner for a foul strike at 97mph, gets a wild chase via a crazy breaking ball down and away, and finishes off Eduardo Nunez with blistering high heat over triple digits. This is what you call overpowered. (Thanks to @BMWAN1215 for the tip!)
Rich Hill’s Curveball – We love it when Hill elects to lower his arm angle just a bit to add horizontal movement and he did just that to earn a strikeout in Friday night’s affair. It’s not fair to get so much lateral movement with one pitch.
Aaron Nola’s At-Bat – Here’s another at-bat GIF as Nola set the tone early against the Mets on Saturday. He showcased each of his three pitches to dismantle Jose Reyes, starting with a fading Two-Seamer off the plate followed up with a Changeup that looks like a strike for 90% of its path toward home. The punchout came via a devastating hook down-and-in that would have shut the door on any lefty.
Aaron Nola’s Fastball – But we couldn’t stop there with Nola as his Two-Seamer is just too much fun to watch. This was a simple 0-0 pitch to start the fourth inning, but man does its bend back toward the plate get us all kind of giddy. There might not be a prettier pitch to watch in the majors.
Max Scherzer’s Changeup – Here’s your weekly reminder that Scherzer is one of the best pitchers in the game. It’s with Changeups like these that silence bats day in and day out, starting in the heart of the zone before dying into the dirt at the last moment. It’s impossible to resist.
Matt Boyd’s Fastball – While it may not have the dazzle and finesse of the other pitchers here today, this up-and-in Fastball from Boyd to Eddie Rosario deserved a spot on the list only because it induced such a horrible swing. Talk about demoralizing.
GIF Of The Night
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below and the winner will be featured in the GIF of the Second Half Contest.
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The multiple pitch/full AB gifs are great. And although you always ask “which gif is the nastiest” I think its clear that people lose their **** the most when they see 95+ two seamers with tons of movement a la Aaron Sanchez.