Every week we review the nastiest pitches from the previous week in glorious HD GIFs. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite pitch and check back Saturday to see if it will be in contention for the GIF of the Fourth Quarter Contest. Week 24’s winner was Jordan Hicks’ Sinker. Hicks is back on top this week. He’s been extremely effective the last few weeks of the season using his big velocity with sharp movement including this insane Sinker.
Did we miss your favorite pitch? Send us a tweet next time @PitcherList and we’ll GIF it up + give you a shoutout here in the article.
This final regular season week’s GIFs include a couple of mainstays to Pitches of the Week, Blake Treinen and Chaz Roe, as well as a couple newcomers to round out the season.
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Max Fried’s Curveball – Fried dropped the hammer on Philly’s Cesar Hernandez, as the second baseman became one of the reliever’s two seventh-inning strikeout victims. Fried struck out 44 batters in 33.2 frames on the year.
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Diego Castillo’s Sinker – Good god. How many guys hit 100 miles per hour with that kind of movement? This pitch is absolutely obscene.
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Collin McHugh’s Slider – The Astros reliever had the juice here, as Austin Wynns couldn’t quite reach this breaker that just kept going. McHugh picked up his 12th hold by striking out two in his one inning.
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Adam Ottavino’s Slider – The season is winding down, but Ottavino’s slider hasn’t lost a step. This pitch has been one of the nastiest pitches all season, and one look at this frisbee is enough to know why.
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Chaz Roe’s Slider – I know we feature this lesser-known reliever a lot in the nastiest pitches, but how can you not when the man can manipulate a slider like this one. Scary Gary Sanchez –– who has been anything but scary this year–– can only hop back in disbelief as this thing frisbees into the zone.
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Max Scherzer’s Slider – Scherzer fanned 10 on Tuesday, helping him surpass the 300 strikeout mark for the first time in his career. This slider, like most of Scherzer’s offerings, was absolutely filthy – dropping Austin Dean to the ground like a sniper.
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Stephen Strasburg’s Changeup – Strasburg didn’t pitch much yesterday, but looked solid while he was out there, tossing four innings of one-run ball and striking out five, one of which came on this beautiful changeup.
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Trevor Richards‘ Changeup – Richards’ change was on another planet, as he got 15 swinging strikes on 39 thrown (38.5 %). This one to Cincinnati’s Scooter Gennett was as good as any of them, though the shortstop avoided becoming one of Richards’ nine strikeout victims later in the at-bat, grounding out.
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Blake Treinen’s Sinker – It’s only fitting that the most recognizable pitch from perhaps the most GIFable pitcher of 2018 pushes us into the second-to-last weekend of the regular season. The A’s closer was at it again Friday, scorching Minnesota’s Jorge Polanco with some inside heat.
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below and the winner may be featured in the GIF of the Fourth Quarter Contest.
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