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!
https://gfycat.com/farawayspanishballoonfish
Kluber has the ability to adjust his curveball to give it more drop or horizontal movement. This one is the latter type and is a pleasure to watch. Peña has had a good rookie year, but this is a tough one.
https://gfycat.com/tangiblemistyalbacoretuna
Garcia only throws his slider 8% of the time and it’s pretty average. It is about 5 MPH slower than the average slider, but he gets exceptional late movement on this one. Every MLB pitcher is capable of spinning an especially good one now and then.
https://gfycat.com/minorblondlamprey
López’s changeup has resulted in an impressive 42.0% O-Swing%, 18.3% Swinging Strike%, and 57.5% Groundball rate. It seems like he has been around a while, but he is still just 26. We’ll see next year if he continues to be a part of an impressive and young Marlin rotation.
https://gfycat.com/unacceptableagreeablekitten
Peralta has been injured for much of 2022 so he hasn’t thrown a ton of curveballs, but it does have an excellent 18.3% Swinging Strike%, .128 AVG, and .195 wOBA. These are right in line with what his xStats are for the pitch.
https://gfycat.com/impossiblepleasantindri
The sunlight makes the beginning of this pitch difficult to see, but with that movement and funky delivery Milner seems like an old-fashioned Lefty-specialist. Even a professional hitter like Wendle doesn’t stand a chance here.
https://gfycat.com/faintlefticelandgull
Ordinarily, nothing stands out about Castillo’s change, but this one to the magnificent José Ramírez seems to dive way out of the zone, making him look foolish. That alone should tell you this was a nasty pitch.
https://gfycat.com/equaloccasionalequine
Bieber got multiple whiffs by throwing to this location with different pitches. In 2022 he is back to being one of the best starting pitchers in MLB, and his knuckle-curve is a big reason why. It has generated an excellent 43.1 O-Swing%, 22.4% Swinging Strike%, and .214 wOBA.
https://gfycat.com/yearlygleaminghare
It is fun to watch Karinchak drop this very overhand curveball at the top of the zone, something that seems to be done with more frequency recently. His vertical release point is 0.8 feet higher than average.
https://gfycat.com/friendlythinairedaleterrier
Snell has used his slider more in recent games, for good reason. It has a 41.2% O-Swing%, 25.7% Swinging Strike%, and .207 wOBA. He really pounds it down and glove side. Some believe Snell’s inconsistencies in recent years can be attributed to pitch usage.
https://gfycat.com/frigidadorablearuanas
Anderson ended up with 21 whiffs on the afternoon. He has been a revelation for the Dodgers, who didn’t really need the help this year. He has a lot of red bars on his Pitcher List player page, many of which are the most important ones like IP, ERA, and WHIP. He’s done all this with near bottom-of-the-league fastball velo.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)