This August was a big one for pitchers. Aaron Sanchez tossed six frames in a combined no-no in his first start for Houston, Gerrit Cole and Chris Sale kept up their ludicrous strikeout rates, and other pitchers are starting to come to full form. Most importantly, some absurd GIFs emerged in August. So ridiculous that the list of honorable mentions from this month probably would have made most other tournaments in the past. Now it’s time to crown the best pitching GIF of them all from August 2019.
The best 16 have been pulled aside and ranked. On Tuesday, that number, was halved and brought us down to eight. Wednesday, the field was whittled down to our final four. Yesterday, we set up our final matchup. Now it’s on you, the voter, to decide which stands above the rest.
Here are the rules:
- All GIFs were pulled from August 2019.
- You can only vote on a matchup once, so make sure you pick the one you absolutely want.
- Voting will continue until 12:00 a.m. EDT the following morning. This is the final round.
Here are the results for Round 1:
American Bracket
1. Chaz Roe’s Slider defeated 8. Zack Wheeler’s Changeup
2. Charlie Morton’s Curveball defeated 7. Adrian Houser’s Two-Seamer
3. Hyun-Jin Ryu’s Curveball defeated 6. Yu Darvish’s Curveball
5. Chris Sale’s Slider defeated 4. Dustin May’s Sinker
National Bracket
1. Walker Buehler’s Curveball defeated 8. Brendan McKay’s Curveball
7. Stephen Strasburg’s Curveball defeated 2. Gerrit Cole’s Curveball
6. Sonny Gray’s Slider defeated 3. Trevor Bauer’s Two-Seamer
5. Joe Ross‘ Sinker defeated 4. Kirby Yates‘ Splitter
And here are the Round 2 results:
American Bracket
1. Chaz Roe’s Slider defeated 5. Chris Sale’s Slider
3. Hyun-Jin Ryu’s Curveball defeated 2. Charlie Morton’s Curveball
National Bracket
5. Joe Ross‘ Sinker defeated 1. Walker Buehler’s Curveball
6. Sonny Gray’s Slider defeated 7. Stephen Strasburg’s Curveball
Here are the semifinal results:
American Bracket
1. Chaz Roe’s Slider defeated 3. Hyun-Jin Ryu’s Curveball
National Bracket
5. Joe Ross‘ Sinker defeated 6. Sonny Gray’s Slider
And the final matchup:
1. Chaz Roe’s Slider vs. 5. Joe Ross‘ Sinker
Watch the GIFs in the Links Below!
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@freshmeatcomm on Twitter)
Chaz Roe’s Slider vs. Joe Ross‘ Sinker
It all comes down to this. Our final matchup pits our underdog Joe Ross against the heavy favorite of our tournament (and seemingly every tournament) Chaz Roe. Roe’s slider has been at or near the top of almost all the tournaments we host here, and for good reason. His pitch is one of the nastiest in the game, and it’s Roe’s best offering by a mile. But if there’s one guy who can beat him, it’s Joe Ross. Ross’ sinker has easily defeated every pitch it has gone up against, but he has yet to encounter an opponent like Roe. If Ross can complete the upset, it will be a testament to the nastiness of this sinker that runs in on Aristides Aquino. So can Ross complete the upset? Or will Roe take the top spot as the nastiest pitch of August?
https://gfycat.com/fairwaryindianpalmsquirrel-chaz-roe-sl-8-14-19-baseball
VS.
https://gfycat.com/understatedimpassionedcaracal-joe-ross-si-8-14-19-baseball
Which was the better pitch? Vote to decide which pitch advances to the next round!
[polldaddy poll=10402172]