The Nastiest Pitching GIFs of the Fourth Quarter 2018 – Final Round

There were some ridiculous pitches throughout the baseball season, and you’ve been voting every day for your favorite pitches. We held the Nastiest Pitching GIFs of the First Quarter, Second Quarter, and Third Quarter tournaments and it’s time to crown another king of pitching GIFs with the Nastiest Pitching GIF of the Fourth Quarter. Sixteen pitches entered, now only four are left, who will win?

Here are the rules:

• All GIFs were pulled from the GIF of the Week competitions across weeks 19-24 to end the regular season plus the four weeks of the Postseason.
• Every winner was granted an automatic bid, with the extra slots being hand selected by the staff across all Nastiest Pitches articles.
• The excellent Justin Paradis has created a gorgeous bracket of all 16 pitches, with secondary pitches and fastballs broken up into two brackets, with #1-8 seeds.
• This is the final round

Here are the results from Round #1:

American Bracket

#1 Aaron Nola’s Fastball defeated #8 Alex Cobb’s Splitter
#2 Jordan Hicks’ Fastball defeated #7 Nathan Eovaldi’ Cutter
#3 Zach Britton’s Fastball defeated #6 Rick Porcello’s Fastball
#4 Michael Kopech’s Changeup defeated #5 Dallas Keuchel’s Changeup

National Bracket

#1 Chris Sale’s Slider defeated #8 Corey Knebel’s Curveball
#2 Dylan Maples’ Slider defeated #7 Aaron Nola’s Curveball
#3 Adam Ottavino’s Slider defeated #6 Taylor Rogers’ Curveball
#5 Blake Treinen’s Slider defeated #4 Chaz Roe’s Slider

Here are the results from Round #2:

American Bracket

#1 Aaron Nola’s Fastball defeated #4 Michael Kopech’s Changeup
#2 Jordan Hicks’ Fastball defeated #3 Zach Britton’s Fastball

National Bracket

#1 Chris Sale’s Slider defeated #5 Blake Treinen’s Slider
#3 Adam Ottavino’s Slider defeated #2 Dylan Maples’ Slider

Here are the results from Round #3:

American Bracket

#1 Aaron Nola’s Fastball defeated #2 Jordan Hicks’ Fastball

National Bracket

#3 Adam Ottavino’s Slider defeated #1 Chris Sale’s Slider

Here are the matchups for Round #4:

 

 

American Bracket

#1 Aaron Nola’s Fastball

National Bracket

#3 Adam Ottavino’s Slider

Adam Ottavino‘s slider is riding an absolute heater, winning back-to-back contests against higher ranked sliders. Now going for the trifecta, Ottavino goes toe-to-toe with an actual heater, the favorite from the American bracket, Aaron Nola‘s fastball. Eight MPH separate these two pitches, but if you started them both down the middle, the final separation would be about 53 inches (4.42 feet)-which is an estimation, but by no means an exaggeration. Really think about it before you vote, because this is it. This decides who wins the 2018 Fourth Quarter Final and achieves baseball immortality.

Aaron Nola’s Fastball vs. Adam Ottavino’s Slider

VS

Which was the better pitch? Vote to decide which pitch wins the Nastiest Pitching GIF of the Fourth Quarter!
[polldaddy poll=10190652]