This September was a big one for pitchers. Justin Verlander threw his third career no-no and hit 3,000 strikeouts for his career. His teammate Gerrit Cole also finished the year above 300 strikeouts and ended with the highest K/9 in a season in the history of the game. And that’s without mentioning other pitchers who are starting to come to full form. Most importantly, some absurd GIFs emerged in September. 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 September 2019.
The best 16 have been pulled aside and ranked. On Tuesday, we cut that number in half. On Wednesday, the field was whittled down to four. Yesterday, that number was brought down to just two. Now it’s on you, the voter, to decide which stands above the rest.
Here are the rules:
- All GIFs were pulled from September 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 from Round 1:
American Bracket
8. Jason Adam’s Curveball defeated 1. Brad Wieck’s Curveball
2. Brusdar Graterol’s Sinker defeated 7. Sandy Alcantara’s Sinker
3. Jose Berrios’ Curveball defeated 6. Justin Verlander’s Fastball
5. Gerrit Cole’s Slider defeated 4. Gerrit Cole’s Fastball
National Bracket
1. Yu Darvish’s Slider defeated 8. Josh Hader’s Slider
7. Stephen Strasburg’s Changeup defeated 2. Rich Hill’s Curveball
6. Anthony Kay’s Curveball defeated 3. Chaz Roe’s Slider
4. Trevor Bauer’s Two-Seamer defeated 5. Max Fried’s Curveball
Here are the Round 2 results:
American Bracket
8. Jason Adam’s Curveball defeated 5. Gerrit Cole’s Slider
3. Jose Berrios’ Curveball defeated 2. Brusdar Graterol’s Sinker
National Bracket
1. Yu Darvish’s Slider defeated 4. Trevor Bauer’s Two-Seamer
7. Stephen Strasburg’s Changeup defeated 6. Anthony Kay’s Curveball
Here are the matchups for the semifinals:
American Bracket
8. Jason Adam’s Curveball defeated 3. Jose Berrios’ Curveball
National Bracket
1. Yu Darvish’s Slider defeated 7. Stephen Strasburg’s Changeup
And our final matchup:
1. Yu Darvish’s Slider vs. 8. Jason Adam’s Curveball
Watch the GIFs in the Links Below!
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@freshmeatcomm on Twitter)
Yu Darvish’s Slider vs. Jason Adam’s Curveball
It all comes down to this. After a wild turn of events, our final matchup will feature our No. 1 seed Yu Darvish going up against the lowest-ranked pitch in the tournament, Jason Adam’s curve. Adam has a chance to complete the ultimate upset and win the tournament as our No. 8 seed with his magnificent front-door curveball that forces Gleyber Torres to retreat out of the batter’s box. But Adam won’t merely be handed a victory in this round as he’ll have to top Darvish’s slider that zips 2 feet out of the zone to fool Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas. Both of these pitches are more than deserving of winning, but only one can take home the title of Nastiest Pitch of September. Who will it be?
https://gfycat.com/hastyplaincondor-yu-darvish-sl-9-22-19
VS.
https://gfycat.com/velvetypowerfulelephantbeetle-baseball
Which was the better pitch? Vote to decide which pitch advances to the next round!
[polldaddy poll=10424721]