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 and check back this weekend to see if it will be in contention for the GIF of the Second Half Contest, which will be live this All-Star week. Did we miss your favorite pitch? Send us a tweet next time @ThePitcherList and we’ll GIF it up + give you a shoutout here in the article.
Zack Greinke’s Repertoire – We’ve been adding a few more combined GIFs lately, though this Greinke GIF is a first. He fanned batters with four different pitches during Saturday’s affair, each well deserving of a spotlight as his Fastball painted the corner, Changeup brought Kolten Wong to a knee, Curveball fell from the sky for the backwards K, and his Slider curled back elegantly to nip the outside corner. There are very few pitchers in the league that can command like Greinke.
Aaron Nola’s Fastball – There’s little denying that Nola has pitched like an ace over the last two months and it continued against the Angels on Tuesday. He set the tone from the beginning by sitting down future hall-of-famer Albert Pujols with his signature backdoor Two-Seamer that nipped the outside corner. This horizontal movement is just filthy.
Dellin Betances‘ Curveballs – It’s one thing to make a batter flinch on a breaking ball – we’ve seen plenty buckle their knees against Betances’ bender. But what if you got future Hall-of-Famer Miguel Cabrera to shake in the box three times in one at-bat? Now that’s something special.
Miguel Castro’s Fastball – Castro is rail thin and striking out less than batters per 9 innings this year, but it’s hard to understand how he misses so few bats when you look at this GIF. Castro gets his Fastball up to 98 MPH to Mikie Mahtook with some ridiculous horizontal movement. The slomo gives a great look at the sideways spin Castro gets on his Fastball.
Corey Kluber’s Fastball + Slider – Once again, Kluber lit up the scoreboard with 12 strikeouts and many of his pitches could easily have found their way into our roundup. These two in particular stuck out, with a textbook front-door Fastball and a wiffle ball Slider that no one can resist.
Zach Britton’s Fastball – There was plenty of talk about Britton over the weekend as the trade deadline neared, though Britton stayed put ultimately. The result was Britton showing off his unreal Fastball, which struck out Salvador Perez with mind-blowing drop at 97mph. Unreal.
Jeremy Hellickson’s Curveball – I still haven’t heard a rational explanation for why the Orioles traded for a rental starter like Hellickson, but in his first outing for his new team Hellickson was stellar. Hellickson has always had good command and here he buries his tumbling Curveball down in the zone to get Alex Gordon swinging. The late drop here is fun to watch.
Luis Perdomo’s Fastball – Perdomo gets great movement on this front door Fastball, and at 97 MPH, Jason Castro has little time before the ball is hitting the inside black. Perfect placement.
GIF Of The Week
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below and the winner will be featured in the GIF of the Second Half Contest.
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