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!
Yu Darvish’s Splitter
https://gfycat.com/actualmerryhoopoe
My favorite part of the slo-mo angles are seeing the pitch grips. We don’t get a great view of this one thanks to my trigger happy video editing skills, but you can pause the clip and still see how Yu Darvish holds the ball. And by holds I mean wedges it in between his fingers in a way that makes it perform magic tricks. Very impressive.
Alek Manoah’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/linedcalculatingfantail
I’ll let our own Alex Fast share his thoughts on this one.
This SL literally made me scream OO LORDY pic.twitter.com/eoCgnwfRiV
— Alex Fast (@AlexFast8) June 10, 2021
Anthony Bender’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/selfreliantgratefulchupacabra
With a name like Bender you better have a pitch with some good movement… and Anthony Bender’s sinker does in fact have excellent movement. Garrett Hampson disagreed with the called strike three, but he can’t disagree that it’s a filthy pitch.
Anthony Castro’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/ultimatespiritedkudu
The slider has been Anthony Castro’s best pitch this season, as Yasmani Grandal found out yesterday in the sixth inning. Sporting a 35.9% CSW on the season, the pitch gets above average movement across the board and has a whiff rate of 40.7%. That’s nasty.
Vladimir Gutiérrez’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/occasionalflakycardinal
In his third major league start, Vladimir Gutiérrez dazzled by striking out seven Brewers over seven innings. His fastball averaged a mere 92.3 MPH, but his curveball and slider were dancing all over the place and sported a 35% and 33% CSW, respectively. His changeup averaged 78.7 MPH on the night, a 13.5 MPH difference from his fastball, and that will certainly play. I’m no expert, but I’m very intrigued.
Jeurys Familia’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/fancypaltrycoati
Talk about making 98 MPH look effortless. Not only does he make it look effortless, but Jeurys Familia also hits his spot and paints the corner like Picasso. Beautiful.
Brandon Workman’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/sardonicflatbinturong
After getting traded to Philadelphia in the Nick Pivetta deal, struggling, then bouncing around a few times, Brandon Workman has returned home to where he began his career in Boston. Since being called up on June 3rd, he has a 38.7% CSW over 4.2 innings. If he can keep that up, the Red Sox got a steal for their already much improve bullpen.
Daniel Bard’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/informalshadowyboilweevil
Some guys do better by returning to where they started, while others need a fresh change of scenery and some time off to get back on track. Daniel Bard took the latter path and it sure has worked out for him so far. He’s one of the best comeback stories in a long time and I love to watch him whenever he pitches. I couldn’t be happier for Bard after what he went through in Boston, so here’s a nasty sinker from him to wrap up today’s edition.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns of Twitter)