Every morning, the We Love Baseball crew reviews the Nastiest Pitches from the previous day’s games. If you see something you think should be included here be sure to tweet @PitcherList to let us know. Or, if you’re a PL+ Member and part of our Discord, shout it out in the Nastiest Pitches channel. If your suggestion is included the next day, you’ll be entered into a weekly drawing for a free t-shirt. If you’re not already a PL+ member, you’re missing out!
Drew Smyly’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/villainoussharphawk
Smyly throws his curveball 40% of the time. It generally is about average across the board but does have a 41.4% O-Swing% and 16.9% Swinging Strike%. He misses his spot here a bit, but it is still well-placed.
Carlos Rodón’s Fastball
https://gfycat.com/pastelanyearthworm
Rodón has an excellent four-seam fastball. With a usage rate of 61%, he has achieved a 35.1% O-Swing%, 14.4% Swinging Strike%, and .285 wOBA. It is enjoyable to watch him pitch.
https://gfycat.com/immediatecompassionatebarnacle
A feeble wave from a LHB is a common sight against Rodón’s glove-side slider. It looks like a strike for so long it is difficult to lay off. Coming into this game he had yet to give up a HR on it.
https://gfycat.com/negligibletimelyindianrhinoceros
The young Contreras has a 45.9% O-Swing%, 24.2% Swinging Strike%, and .216 wOBA for his impressive slider. Hopefully, we will get to see a lot more of it in future seasons.
https://gfycat.com/thriftyequalhen
This is a beauty of a curve. Mikolas gets middling results on it, but it gets 3.3″ more drop than the average curveball and I thoroughly enjoy watching it.
https://gfycat.com/pitifulheartylcont
This is a wicked changeup from Bello. He’s only thrown about 140 of them in his young career, but it looks like it’s a good one. Red Sox fans hope this is the start of a long and excellent career with them. I do not.
https://gfycat.com/uncommonthirdalpineroadguidetigerbeetle
Voth gets excellent horizontal movement and spin on his curveball. Based on his heat maps he seems to do a good job of placing it down and glove-side. Because of this, it is surprising that he doesn’t get better results on it. Just a guess, but maybe it has to do with sequencing and/or the rest of his repertoire.
Lance McCullers Jr.’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/enragedunlinedbullfrog
You know it must be a nasty curveball to do this to the great Ohtani. McCullers has missed most of 2022, but he has made a career with that knuckle curve.
https://gfycat.com/breakablebitesizedacornweevil
Now Báez certainly isn’t known for his plate discipline, but this must’ve been a pretty deceptive changeup from Lynch to cause this kind of swing. He’ll have to learn to do this a lot more often if he is going to have MLB success.
https://gfycat.com/allbrilliantafricanelephant
The camera angle is pretty high up, but this is a beautiful changeup from Stripling. Well-spotted and nice drop. He has had a few injuries this season, but Stripling has been very good and it has largely been due to this pitch. It has an excellent 50.7% O-Swing%, 21.2% Swinging Strike%, and .228 wOBA.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)