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.
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Max Fried’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/afraidscalyboaconstrictor
Fried easily had the best start of the night, with seven shutout innings and eight strikeouts against the lethal Dodgers offense. He threw all five of his pitches with regularity and earned 13 whiffs, and this curve was no exception. He spun it up to 3042 rpm and it had a 30% CSW on the night.
Clay Holmes‘ Sinker
https://gfycat.com/fairfarcopperbutterfly
Since joining the Yankees last season in a trade with the Pirates, Holmes has been one of the most effective relievers in the majors, posting a 1.62 ERA in 33 innings. He’s done this primarily by using the turbo sinker, a pitch that combines high velocity and elite horizontal run to induce whiffs and elite contact alike. Last season, Holmes had the second-highest sinker ground ball rate among all pitchers (ahead of him was Aaron Bummer). This pitch had an insane 24 inches of horizontal run and painted the corner to Jeimer Candelario.
Clarke Schmidt’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/coordinatedbarrenborzoi
While Clay Holmes had a solid relief appearance for the Yankees, his teammate Schmidt held down the bulk in their win over the Tigers. After ace Gerrit Cole failed to make it out of the second inning, Schmidt pitched 3.2 scoreless innings in relief with six strikeouts and earned the win. He used this nasty curveball more than any other pitch and had a 43% CSW with it.
Patrick Sandoval’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/plumphideousgoldeneye
If you purely look at results, Sandoval had the best changeup of any major league starter last season. It had a 29.2% swinging-strike rate, which comfortably led the majors. This pitch dove under the bat of rookie Jeremy Peña and ended up right on the lower edge of the zone. Sandoval struggled with command in this start and only finished four innings, but allowed only an unearned run and struck out five batters.
Max Scherzer’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/creamysamegoldfinch
Fifteen years and 3000 strikeouts into a big league career, Scherzer still simply refuses to age. At the young age of 37, he just posted the 105th double-digit strikeout game of his career with a cool 34% CSW. He was also just the second pitcher all season to throw 100 pitches in a game. This curveball had elite horizontal run in on the hands of Steven Duggar, and it’s easy to see why he only allowed one hit to a hot Giants lineup.
Corbin Burnes‘ Cutter
https://gfycat.com/lividmealyavians
Burnes is simply a Nastiest Pitches cheat code, there’s no other way to put it. The reigning Cy Young winner simplified his arsenal today by throwing cutters nearly two-thirds of the time, but he still led the day with 17 whiffs and a 37% CSW. This cutter is such a nasty pitch, more horizontal movement than some cutters and more vertical ride than many four-seamers.
Nathan Eovaldi’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/pitifulunimportantbluemorphobutterfly
Eovaldi has always had huge velocity, but one of the biggest improvements he made throughout his career has been refining an excellent secondary package including a slider, splitter, cutter, and this curveball. He’s been known to vary his mechanics and timing to fool hitters, and on this pitch he lowered his arm slot against Lourdes Gurriel Jr., adding some extra horizontal sweep and getting the inning-ending strikeout.
Yusei Kikuchi’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/abandonedfancyboutu
This is one of the best uses of the slow-motion camera I’ve ever seen. Kikuchi’s slider is a gyro machine, and you can see just how much late drop it had. Kikuchi was brilliant at times last year, but his fastball velocity was often inconsistent. Hopefully, he can maintain his stuff over a full season and continue working with the great secondaries like he did today.
Josiah Gray’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/sprycandidacornwoodpecker
Gray is one of the most electric young arms in baseball. Despite being small for a pitcher, his elite lower body flexibility allows him to generate big velocity and great secondaries. This curveball had 11 inches of induced vertical drop, and the pitch posted a crazy 50% CSW today. Gray and teammate Joan Adon shut down the Diamondbacks in a doubleheader today, and look like a great 1-2 punch for the Nationals rotation of the future.
Hansel Robles‘ Fastball
https://gfycat.com/fluffygratefulandeancat
While Robles missed his spot high on this pitch, it was still good enough for the backwards K to superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The slow-motion view with the pitch tail shows how much lateral movement the pitch had to get back over the zone (16 inches to be specific). This strikeout was a big factor in the Sox locking down a close 2-1 victory over Toronto.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)