Every morning, the We Love Baseball crew reviews the Nastiest Pitches from the previous day’s games in glorious high-definition GIFs. 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.
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Reid Detmers‘ Curveball
https://gfycat.com/DamagedSkinnyDugong
Reid Detmers made his highly anticipated debut for the Angels yesterday. Detmers has some filthy strikeout stuff as he tossed 106 strikeouts across 60 innings in AA and AAA this year. Here Detmers uses his top stuff, an absurd curveball to notch his first career K to one of the best hitters in the league in Matt Olson.
Sandy Alcantara’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/TepidValidArcherfish
Sandy Alcantara tossed an absolute gem against the Yankees in which he struck out 10 over seven shutout innings. Here Alcantara tosses an insane 93 mph changeup that runs in on Aaron Judge and gets the slugger on a filthy swing and miss.
Charlie Morton’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/PerfumedZigzagAlbacoretuna
Charlie Morton consistently has one of the nastiest curves in baseball. Yesterday he showed it off against the Brewers as he was using it to get whiffs left and right. Here Morton throws an absolutely disgusting hook that runs in on Omar Narváez for a swinging strike three.
José Berríos‘ Curveball
https://gfycat.com/GloomyPartialJunebug
José Berríos made his debut for the Blue Jays against the Royals yesterday and the former Twins ace made his mark in Toronto. Berrios threw six shutout innings en route to a Jays’ win. Berrios has an insane curve and here he bends one past Salvador Perez for a K.
Aroldis Chapman’s Fastball
https://gfycat.com/HardFlawlessKawala
No one throws heat quite like Aroldis Chapman. The Yankees closer sits in the low-100s and here he touches 101 mph on a beauty of a pitch against Jesús Aguilar. Just absolutely filthy, and at that speed, it’s nearly unhittable.
Devin Williams‘ Changeup
https://gfycat.com/IdenticalMiserlyFrog
Aroldis Chapman might just have the nastiest fastball of any reliever in MLB, but for the filthiest pitch overall, it’s gotta be Devin Williams‘ changeup. Williams’ airbender doesn’t even need a caption at this point, so I’ll leave you with just one word: Wow.
Logan Webb’s Sinker
https://gfycat.com/TerribleGraveEeve
Logan Webb pitched six quality frames and struck out three hitters yesterday for the Giants. Webb has been an integral part of the Giants rotation this year and yesterday’s performance was a testament to his importance. Here he paints the outer edge with a filthy back door sinker to freeze Martin Maldonado.
Adbert Alzolay’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/ShowyJovialBittern
Adbert Alzolay is not necessarily a name that gets thrown around with the typical occupants of these articles. But this changeup that fools Juan Soto earns the Alzolay a spot amongst yesterday’s nastiest pitches. Watch as it just drops out on Soto who has no chance at contact.
Aaron Bummer’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/ThisBasicHarlequinbug
Aaron Bummer might not be the best reliever on the White Sox and as of Thursday he may not even be the second best, but boy does his slider get the job done. Bummer can toss the slider just about as well as anyone and here he sweeps one past the bat of Roberto Pérez for strike three.
Kyle Gibson’s Changeup
https://gfycat.com/EquatorialEverlastingGemsbuck
Lastly today, we’re featuring Kyle Gibson who made his Phillies debut yesterday afternoon. Gibson pitched very well striking out five over 6.2 quality innings. Here Gibson gets Michael Perez swinging for his 1000th career strikeout, an important milestone for the newest member of the Philly rotation that comes on a nasty changeup.
Featured image by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter)
IMO, Chapman’s strike before the pitch featured here, a splitter, was better, and after it crossed the plate, Aguilar stared at him with a dumbfounded look on his face for a while. It was pretty funny. There was a great slo-mo clip of it afterward where you could really see how little spin there was on it, it looked almost like a knuckleball.