Every Monday we review the nastiest pitches from the previous weekends’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 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.
Congrats to Chris Sale’s Slider for winning Nastiest Pitching GIF of the Week! It’s no secret that the best pitcher this season has a ridiculous slider.
Lance McCullers’ Changeup – McCullers cruised through the Los Angeles lineup this weekend, with just four baserunners to his name across seven frames. His Changeup looked beautiful and got Ben Revere fishing on this pitch that never stopped diving off the plate.
Gerrit Cole’s Curveball – Cole has had a great start to the season showing improved control and living up to his high upside stuff. Here he uses a Curveball veering from one side of the strike zone to the next to K April’s darling Eric Thames.
Dylan Bundy’s Changeup – If you listened to last week’s podcast you know the staff at Pitcher List is a little skeptical of Bundy’s good start. His xFIP is about 2 full runs higher than his ERA which is not a good sign. For now, fantasy owners are enjoying Bundy’s good start, and on Friday night he used a good Changeup to K Leury Garcia.
Dellin Betances‘ Fastball – Weekend baseball took a long time to conclude, with the Yankees and Cubs playing a two games in one as they went 18 innings Sunday night. Betances did his job to end the game sooner, silencing the Cubs in his sole inning of work, including fanning Anthony Rizzo with some serious cheddar at 101mph. (Thanks to Redditor ClaytonKoufax for the tip!)
Joe Smith’s Slider – Smith has built a nice career for himself with his sidewinding ROOGY stuff, and is a low key option in Holds leagues. This Slider to Jesus Sucre starts right at his hip, causing a nice flinch, and that breaks into the strike zone beautifully. (Thanks to Redditor jdavis33 for the tip!).
Tyler Anderson’s Cutter – Anderon had his best outing of the year this weekend by striking out 10 Diamondbacks on his way to a win. His command was on point, as usual, and here he uses a well spotted pitch on the borderline to get Paul Goldschmidt looking unhappily.
Zack Greinke’s Fastball – Greinke has lost some velocity on his Fastball, and is learning on the fly how to get hitters out without those extra couple of ticks on the radar. He’s been using his Slider more recently and has had more success. However, his command of the Fastball is still spot on, and here he gets Ian Desmond looking on a straight pitch right on the black. Reminiscent of Mark Prior back in the day.
Felipe Rivero’s Slider – Rivero has been a revelation as a more than a LOOGY reliever this year, and is worth a look even in leagues without holds as a category. His crisp Slider is a late breaking nightmare to hitters, and he got Eric Thames to swing feebly through one on Friday night. (Thanks to @SDJewell for the tip!).
GIF Of The Weekend
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below and the winner will be featured in the GIF of the Week Contest.
[polldaddy poll=9741932]
“If you listened to last week’s podcast you know the staff at Pitcher List is a little skeptical of Bundy’s good start.” **cough cough**
haha, I lean toward Nick’s side, sorry.