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.
A.J. Puk’s Slider
Puk really struggled again today, despite pitches like this. It seems like he might be better suited as a reliever. Generally, his sweeper hasn’t been good, but this certainly was an unfair way to welcome Wisdom off the IL.
Keegan Thompson’s Cutter
Keegan is not a name I would expect to see in these articles frequently, but he had 4 Ks today in 2.0 IP. It’s hard to believe a cutter could generate this kind of movement. Ordinarily, he gets -9.0″ of iHB break — that’s 99th percentile. This one was about 4 mph slower than his normal cutters and had about -13″ of iHB. This was probably closer to a slider than a cutter, but still nasty.
Garrett Crochet’s Cutter
Movement from LHPs can be difficult to see due to camera angles, but based on Harper’s swing this cutter moved a lot. Crochet also nailed his spot. The cutter is a new pitch for Crochet. PLV considers it average, but it scores high in most other metrics. It’s 95th percentile in both SwStr% and CSW%.
Tyler Anderson’s Changeup
Tyler Anderson’s changeup is very visually appealing to me. The hitch in his leg kick adds to it. Apart from that, it’s good. Unless his player page is glitching, it’s Oth (sic?) percentile in velocity, coming in at 79.2 mph. It scores high in most metrics, including O-Swing%, SwStr%, CSW%, and ICR.
Declan Cronin’s Sinker
Most of Cronin’s sinkers get about 30″ of vertical break according to Savant. This one got 36″, and you can see it based on Happ’s swing. Cronin’s sinker gets a lot of spin — 2,500 RPMs (99th percentile) — but it generally grades out poorly. This pitch here shows that sometimes guys are capable of throwing extraordinary pitches seemingly out of the blue.
Quinn Priester’s Curveball
Priester threw a few sharp-breaking curves, but I thought this one was best, despite the poor camera timing. He did not have a good day, but I also saw some good-looking sinkers. Maybe we’ll see more of him in Nastiest Pitches.
Clarke Schmidt’s Knuckle Curve
I almost didn’t include Schmidt for the sole reason he looks exactly like a co-worker of mine. He threw several harsh knuckle curves. PLV loves the pitch. It’s 95th percentile. His WHIP continues to be atrocious this year, but if he can figure out his pitch mix he could become a solid SP. Of course, you can say that about a lot of guys.
Triston McKenzie’s Curveball
For someone with a partially torn UCL McKenzie sure can flip some nice-looking curves. Usually, there is nothing that stands out about his curveballs, but this one was well-placed and had a lot of movement.
Joe Boyle’s Fastball
How does that saying go? Even a blind clock finds a nut twice a day? Anyways, this is an infrequent occurrence for Boyle. The nice thing for him is that his stuff is so good it keeps his Mistake% (MTK%) low at 2.7%. Those are pitches that are in the zone and have less than a 4.5 PLV. He is certainly entertaining to watch.
Chris Sale’s Slider
This is an absurd slider from Chris Sale. That is all.
Photos courtesy of Icon Sportswire
Adapted by Kurt Wasemiller (@KUWasemiller on Twitter / @kurt_player02 on Instagram