Every morning, we review the nastiest pitches from the previous day’s games in glorious high-definition GIFs. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite pitch and check back this weekend to see if it will be in contention for the GIF of the First Quarter Contest. Did we miss your favorite pitch? Send us a tweet next time @PitcherList, and we’ll GIF it up and give you a shoutout here in the article.
Stephen Strasburg’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/RevolvingFixedComet
Stephen Strasburg has quietly been fantastic over the past month plus, running a 2 ERA, sub-1 WHIP, and 12 K/9. His famous change has been a big part of that success; Willson Contreras stared at him for seven seconds after this piece of filth.
Aaron Nola’s Two-Seamer
https://gfycat.com/IdealCraftyHatchetfish
We are back to enjoying Nola Days here at PL: His 12K, 1 ER gem today was much needed after the rough start to the season. My personal favorite “nasty” pitches involve a ball starting wayyyy off the plate and then skurrting back over it. This two-seamer fits that bill.
Blake Snell’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/GloriousDefiniteKid
Every Blake Snell start is chalk full of pitches that we could use in this article. Tonight, we chose his eye-popping curveball to Gleyber Torres. The pitch is there, there, there…. not there. Paired with high 90s heat and a solid change, it’s no wonder Snell is so dominant.
Walker Buehler’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/WelloffLinearHarpyeagle
Watching Buehler is a lot of fun. He’s all arms and legs in his delivery until the last millisecond where he lines up and he comes straight at the hitter. Lots of high 90s heat (soo much paint in this outing), but he’s really dominant because of his great secondaries. This curve locks Nick Senzel all the way up.
Taylor Cole’s Two-Seamer
https://gfycat.com/MintyHonoredKittiwake
Inconspicuous name, not so inconspicuous pitch. Holy moly that thing had some run on it. Cole got touched up last night, but good to know he’s got this… thing in his back pocket. I would love to see this pitch in slow motion.
As always, thanks to Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja on Twitter) for opening our eyes to some of these offerings. Give him a follow if you haven’t.
GIF of the Night
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below, and the winner will be featured in the GIF of the First Quarter Contest.
[polldaddy poll=10322617]