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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Trevor Richards‘ Changeup
This changeup moves so much that Kirk has a hard time catching it. It almost has a knuckleball-like flutter to it. Richards has a 5.05 ERA and 1.49 WHIP, but it’s not his changeup’s fault. It has a 51.9% O-Swing%, 25.6% Swinging Strike%, and .229 wOBA.
Alek Manoah’s Sinker
This is a 3-0 sinker that finishes well off the plate that still gets Torres to swing at. Manoah is a young star and his sinker is a big part of that.
Charlie Morton’s Curveball
This pitch ends up way off the plate, but it gets a good young hitter in Jeremy Peña to chase. Morton has been making hitters do this for years now with this curveball. It’s his most used pitch this year at 37% and it has a 18.4% Swinging Strike% and .254 wOBA.
José Urquidy’s Curveball
This curveball takes a sudden sharp dive, making Michael Harris II look foolish. Urquidy’s curveball averages about 3.5 inches more drop than the average MLB curve. Despite this, it has gotten average to below-average results.
Camilo Doval’s Cutter
The velocity of this cutter from Doval reminds me of Emmanuel Clase. It doesn’t get much movement, but he hits the glove. Overall, Doval has been a solid reliever, but the cutter has just been OK. He only has 77 IP in his career, so this may improve with some tweaks.
Justin Steele’s Slider
Steele has been coming on of late. His slider has a .135 AVG, .170 wOBA, and 13.9% Hard Contact%. It also has about 300 more RPM and 4 inches more horizontal movement than the average MLB slider.
Alexis Díaz’s Slider
When sliders are located like this they are very successful. Díaz is rapidly becoming a dominant reliever. His player page has a lot of red on it, but what stands out the most is his 100th percentile extension.
Shohei Ohtani’s Slider
Ohtani misses his spot badly here, but it didn’t matter. He still created this awkward swing. His slider is the most used of his many pitches, at 36%. It gets good, but not excellent results. Apparently, it’s the only thing he is not amazing at.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)