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!
Jhoan Duran’s Splitter
https://gfycat.com/enlightenedrewardingduck
Everyone is going to be talking about Jhoan Duran today, the highly touted prospect for the Twins who made the roster out of camp and made his debut yesterday. The talk of the town will be his “splinker,” a pitch that he discovered by accident just before his trade to Minnesota in 2018. Do-Hyoung Park wrote a great article about the pitch over at MLB just a few days ago that’s worth a read, so go check that out and come back to marvel at this pitch a few more times after. I’ll go out on a limb and say this will be a Nastiest Pitches mainstay this season.
Aaron Nola’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/lightnimbleechidna
Who doesn’t love a good front-door sinker? Billy McKinney doesn’t, that’s for sure. Now that I think about it, most hitters probably don’t. And I don’t blame them, but luckily for us their opinion doesn’t really matter, and we get to enjoy this nasty sinker from Aaron Nola anyway.
Nathan Eovaldi’s Splitters
https://gfycat.com/yawningfirsthandchrysalis
Here’s something we don’t usually do – multiple pitches at once. I simply couldn’t pick one of these splitters from Nathan Eovaldi because they were all just as filthy as the last one. Eovaldi had a 57% CSW with the pitch on Friday, easily his best pitch of the day by far. Boston needs much more of this out of Eovaldi early this season if they’re going to remain competitive in the loaded AL East while Chris Sale is injured.
Shane McClanahan’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/badselfishhylaeosaurus
Shane McClanahan’s sophomore campaign started off with a bang, as he struck out seven over 4.1 scoreless innings against the Orioles. All of his stuff was working in this one, but his curveball was his best weapon, and it registered a 38% CSW on the day. This guy is going to be a problem for the AL East this year.
Logan Webb’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/vibrantpossiblecanadagoose
This was Logan Webb’s best changeup of the day, and while he only struck out three batters in his six frames of work, it was an effective start that helped put San Francisco in a position to ultimately win the game.
Jeurys Familia’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/revolvingslipperyblacklab
The demon sinker strikes again! Jeurys Familia had the nastiest sinker in baseball for a stretch late last season, but it went away just as quickly as it appeared for seemingly no reason. It looks like the pitch is back in its filthiest form, which is very good for business.
Charlie Morton’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/edibletightharrier
A ball this far off the plate with this kind of movement isn’t the nicest thing to do to an opposing batter, but Charlie Morton has repeatedly done it throughout his career and for all intents and purposes everyone seems to think he’s a swell guy. If anything, Tommy Pham should know better than to swing at this junk.
Frankie Montas‘ Splitter
https://gfycat.com/animatedunnaturalakitainu
Montas opened up this at-bat against Bryce Harper with a nasty splitter that had 30 inches of drop. As usual, Montas’ filth was hidden for most of the game thanks to a terrible camera angle, so if he gets traded at the deadline this season I’m very much hoping it’s to a team with a great camera (cough Boston cough)
Gerrit Cole’s Fastball
https://gfycat.com/querulousmixedhellbender
Gerrit Cole didn’t have his best stuff in his season debut against the Red Sox on Friday, and nastiness was actually pretty hard to come by from him today. This beautifully painted work of art on the corner of the zone to strike out Bobby Dalbec, however, was his Mona Lisa. chef’s kiss
Logan Webb’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/hugeoblongkoala
We wrap up this edition of Nastiest Pitches with a beautiful sinker with a ton of arm-side run from Logan Webb. This is a pretty routine pitch for him at this point, which is rather amazing considering how he’s still able to fool opposing batters into thinking they’re going to get plunked.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)