During spring training, the We Love Baseball crew is warming up for the regular season with nastiest pitches updates three times a week. The camera angles for some of the spring training broadcasts don’t help present the true nastiness of the pitches chosen. We are doing the best we can to accentuate the nastiness with the available resources.
We want to bring you the highest caliber of nastiness possible, so if you see a nasty pitch, please tell us about it. You can tweet @PitcherList to let us know and we’ll give you a shout-out here in the article if your tip makes the cut.
As a bonus for PL+ members, let us know about a pitch on the PL+ Discord in the Nasty Pitches Channel, and if your suggestion is included the next day, you’ll be entered into a weekly drawing for a free T-shirt!
José Urquidy’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/hauntingclosegrasshopper
In his start last, José Urquidy looked like he was pitching to the level he set in 2019. Urquidy had some trouble missing bats in his limited 2020 season so it’s encouraging to see Urquidy strike out four in five innings even if it’s only spring training. We can also use our eyes to see that if Urquidy keeps breaking off nasty sliders like this one to Tyler O’Neill, he’s likely to miss plenty of bats.
Dustin May’s Four-Seam Fastball
https://gfycat.com/enchantingshrilliaerismetalmark
Dustin May would be in the middle of more than a few teams’ rotations if he wasn’t stuck behind other starters in the quality-packed Dodgers rotation. May started last night’s game against the Cubs and showed he can still dial his fastball to near triple digits with ease. This well-spotted fastball to Javier Baez came in at 99 MPH and Baez let it go to find a less nasty pitch to hit.
Dylan Cease’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/fastvaluableankole
Dylan Cease was effective in his five innings of action last night. Cease only allowed three hits and one run but walked four batters. Cease has the stuff to lead a rotation, but too often he can’t harness his powers and keep his pitches in the zone. Personally, I drafted Dylan Cease in the PL staff league and am hoping he throws enough strikes to get ahead of hitters and use his slider to finish them off. The camera angle isn’t great, but Cease gets tremendous drop on this swinging strike.
Alex Claudio’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/unacceptableangryanchovy
Alex Claudio’s slight build and low velocity don’t keep him from throwing nasty pitches that keep hitters off balance. Claudio only throws his sinker in the high eighties but can keep hitters guessing with a changeup thrown around 70 mph. Claudio combines the large differential in speed between his sinker and changeup with a funky arm angle and timing tricks. Claudio is fun to watch.
Dylan Bundy’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/desertedfearlessbobcat
Dylan Bundy threw a few nasty sliders last night, like this one to strike out Trevor Story, but he also threw a few cement mixers and got hit up a little bit. Bundy has increased his slider usage throughout his career with success. If he can keep the ball in the park a little more Bundy is capable of taking another step forward. Bundy also flashed a nasty split-change last night which might help him keep the ball out of the air more effectively.
José De León’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/zestyrecklessamericanavocet
José De León is another pitcher featured in today’s Nastiest Pitches who missed a lot of bats last night, but also gave up more than a couple of runs. De León struck out seven hitters in only four innings, but matched the strikeouts with seven runs allowed. De León’s fastball and slider were lively, but his lesser-used changeup was particularly nasty. The lateral movement isn’t easy to see because of the camera angle, but the nastiness is still apparent.
Brandon Bielak’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/sadassureddodo
Brandon Bielak seems like he has a good chance of making the Astros rotation after Framber Valdez’s injury and for good reason if he can throw more sliders like this one. Bielak’s pitch is great, but this GIF had to be included just for the fan umpire’s strikeout punch after the swing and miss.
Chaz Roe’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/negativegoodconch
Chaz Roe’s slider is one of the nastiest pitches of the Pitcher List era. Roe gets a ridiculous amount of lateral movement on his breaking ball. I’d say this is about a 5 out of 10 on the Chaz Roe slider nastiness scale. Look to Chaz Roe’s player page and the Nastiest Pitches archive for more examples of Roe’s uniquely nasty slider.
I couldn’t see it in the GIF, but Cease’s “Slider” had to be a curve, no? No slider grip I’ve ever seen could provide that much drop.
Without MPH / statcast data it’s hard to know for sure.
Cease used to have a hammer curve that looked a lot like that, which he has been working to bring back this spring.
But he has also always been an elite spin rate guy, and the more steady movement in that gif (rather than sudden drop at the end) makes me think it could be a hard slider sort of like Giolito throws now.
Cease’s pitch mix is a work in progress this spring, so it will probably be a month into the season before we really know which pitches he can really control this year and what type of movement/velo they have.
Thanks for your insightful input.