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.
Hayden Wesneski’s Sweeper
Wesneski’s sweeper was causing swings like this all day, but I thought this was the best. He finished with 8 Ks. He throws it 41% of the time and overall it gets OK results, but the ICR on it is an excellent 22.2% (94th percentile).
Colten Brewer’s Curveball
I was surprised when I saw this from Brewer, but it turns out his curveball is pretty good. It has a 20.7% Swinging Strike% (89th percentile) and 25.0″ Total Break (98th percentile).
Adbert Alzolay’s Sinker
This sinker moves from one side of the plate to the other to arrive at the perfect destination. Alzolay’s sinker moves 16″ horizontally on average. This one moved about 20″. Overall, it hasn’t been a terrible pitch for him, but it hasn’t been particularly good either.
Jordan Hicks‘ Splitter
Jordan Hicks is known more for his high-velocity sinker, but it also opens the door for pitches like this. Stuff-wise it’s usually not all that great (6th percentile Total Break and 33rd percentile PLV), but when he locates them like this it generates a lot of swings and misses. It has a 24.1% Swinging Strike% (86th percentile).
Aaron Nola’s Fastball
Admittedly, this isn’t really a nasty pitch, but it is beautiful. This was so well-spotted that Realmuto would’ve nearly caught it with his eyes closed. Nola is always near the top of the Location+ leaderboards.
Aaron Civale’s Cutter
Now this one was nasty. Despite a strong K%-BB% Civale has struggled to a 5.06 ERA and 1.31 WHIP. He generally uses the cutter to generate a lot of Called Strikes (24.8%-92nd percentile), but occasionally the 82nd percentile Horizontal Break will cause hesitant swings like this.
Aaron Civale’s Sinker
Here’s another nice one from Civale. Ordinarily, his sinker gets a strong Vertical Break and not a Horizontal Break, but on this one, it moved in on Martinez a lot. It didn’t help him today as he was not good.
José Soriano’s Knuckle Curve
José Soriano is your classic young pitcher with electric stuff, but little command. He threw some 99-100 mph sinkers in this one, but this knuckle curve made Naylor look silly. I guess he was too small to hit it.
Reese Olson’s Changeup
PLV and Stuff+ don’t give Olson’s changeup good grades, but it causes a lot of swings and misses. It has a 42.2% O-Swing% (80th percentile) and 26.2% Swinging Strike% (96th percentile). This one is good enough to even make the great Soto confused.
Dylan Cease’s Slider
Cease’s slider has been close to dominant this year with a 24.0% Swinging Strike% (88th percentile) and a 76th percentile ICR. He was very good today and his slider was a big reason why.
Photos courtesy of Icon Sportswire
Adapted by Kurt Wasemiller (@KUWasemiller on Twitter / @kurt_player02 on Instagram