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 First Half Contest. Week 2’s winner was Chaz Roe’s Slider.
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.
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Chaz Roe’s Slider – The 31-year-old is getting a ridiculous 12.5 inches of horizontal break on this pitch so far, which is up from 2017’s 9.8 (the average righty sits at roughly 2.8 inches). That’s so awe-inspiring, even his catcher couldn’t track it—at least not on this offering to Philadelphia’s Scott Kingery.
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Brad Hand’s Slider – Hand earned a four-out save by striking out all four Giants he faced on Saturday. He finished it off with a nasty slider to Austin Jackson that he swung right through.
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Adam Ottavino’s Slider – If you ever want to win your local science fair, hit up Ottavino for a live demonstration of how planetary orbits work, because his slider is clearly following the gravitational pull of some unseen celestial body floating over home plate. It’s the only explanation—just ask Washington’s Michael A. Taylor if he has a better one.
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Adam Ottavino’s Slider – This slider doesn’t even look possible but Ottavino is good at bending the laws of physics on pitching like this one which appears to move about 4 feet from one side of the plate to the other.
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Jordan Hicks‘ Slider – This tornado of a pitch by Cardinals rookie Jordan Hicks somehow found its way onto the inside corner, freezing superstar Kris Bryant. Not many guys can get that kind of movement, especially not with that velocity. Truly nasty.
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Chaz Roe’s Slider – Roe’s slider is pure filth. I don’t even know anymore. Let’s all just sit down on the ground like Renato Nunez and enjoy this sick pitch.
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Tyler Glasnow’s Curveball – After eight consecutive fastballs to Scott Kingery, Glasnow decided to drop this absolute yo-yo right on the inside corner. Kingery could only offer a flinch for strike three.
GIF Of The Week
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below and the winner will be featured in the GIF of the First Half Contest.
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Poor Kingery.
Oh no! Adam Ottavino’s Slider is losing to Adam Ottavino’s Slider!