Every morning, the We Love Baseball crew reviews the Nastiest Pitches from the previous day’s games. If you see something you think should be included here be sure to tweet @PitcherList to let us know. Or, if you’re a PL+ Member and part of our Discord, shout it out in the Nastiest Pitches channel.
Kyle Tyler’s Curveball
This is a real sharp curveball from someone I’d never heard of. There’s not much to say about a pitch that has only been thrown about 25 times this year, but this one’s pretty.
Cristopher Sánchez’s Slider
This is a very nasty slider from Sánchez on a night when he had a few of them. He seems to keep getting better with every start.
Nick Pivetta’s Sweeper
Pivetta didn’t really start throwing a sweeper in earnest until this year, and look at the break on this one. So far it’s generated a 19.2% SwStr% (89th percentile) and a 71st percentile O-Swing%.
Max Scherzer’s Changeup
This is a very well-spotted changeup from Scherzer. He doesn’t have the stuff to appear regularly on Nastiest Pitches anymore, but we might try to find excuses to get him in here.
Martín Pérez’s Cutter
Pérez cutter has 98th percentile Total Break which he uses to generate an 86th percentile CS%. Everybody’s got something.
Randy Vásquez’s Sweeper
Vásquez throws six pitches. He is very early on in his career and hasn’t found much success yet. PLV grades the sweeper as 88th percentile. He only throws it 9% of the time, but maybe he will take on a bigger role for him as he continues to hone his repertoire.
Yusei Kikuchi’s Fastball
Pitcher List’s Fan 4+ live fastball leaderboard loved Kikuchi’s four-seamer tonight. With 1.8″ HAVAA and 136 Fan 4+, 98 mph fastballs like this to DJ LeMahieu lead to swings, and whiffs, like this.
Frankie Montas‘ Splitter
Montas isn’t what he used to be, but he still does a great job keeping his splitter low, with an 82.3% loLoc%. The problem is it may be too low, with just a 25.0% Zone%.
Drew Thorpe’s Changeup
Thorpe has an excellent changeup. It has a 32.6% CSW% (94th percentile) and 56.5% Str-ICR (88th percentile). It’s the rest of his arsenal he needs to figure out.
Justin Martinez’s Sinker
Martinez’s sinker has 100th percentile velocity, which contributes to a high (for a sinker) 9.9% SwStr and 80.0% GB%. When it’s also placed like this it’s hard to see anyone hit it.
Photos courtesy of Icon Sportswire
Adapted by Kurt Wasemiller (@KUWasemiller on Twitter / @kurt_player02 on Instagram