It’s been another exciting week of baseball with many excellent pitches from around the league. You’ve been voting all week, now the top pitches battle for the crown of “Pitching GIF of the Week”. Who will win? Did we miss your favorite pitch? Send us a tweet next time @ThePitcherList and we’ll GIF it up + give you a shoutout here in the article.
Tom Koehler’s Curveball – Not too much love is given to Koehler in these roundups, but the New Rochelle native made opposing pitcher Ariel Pena flinch in the batter’s box with this mighty hook for the backwards K.
Jeurys Familia’s Splitter – The Mets continued their march to the playoffs and Familia has been the rock they haven’t had for years at the end of their bullpen. He shut down Bryce Harper Monday for the second out of the ninth with a Splitter that registered 95.82 MPH according to Brooks Baseball. Nuts. (Thanks to @dan_morrissey and Reddit user kars4kidz for the tip!)
Felix Hernandez’s Curveball – This season has featured some tough times for King Felix, but he looked sharp Saturday against the Athletics. His Curveball was breaking hard and made Danny Valencia flinch as this hook fell into the strike zone.
Felix Hernandez’s Changeup – The king has been looking like his old self in September, and earned himself two spots in this week’s roundup. He struck out many with his patented 90 MPH Changeup on Thursday night, including this fine specimen to Will Venable.
Ryan Weber’s Fastball – It was the major league debut Tuesday night for Weber and he collected his first career strikeout with a luscious Fastball that had a bunch of horizontal ride. Our knees would have buckled too, Cody Asche. (Thanks to @OchoDoetscho for the tip!)
Jake Arrieta’s Changeup – Arrieta threw a bunch of filthy pitches once again last weekend, and we elected to feature his rarely thrown Changeup for a little variety. Excellent fading action at 89 MPH is more than enough to strike out Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
Garrett Richards‘ Curveball – Richards has one of the biggest hooks in the majors, and we got a pretty look at his huge Curveball in slow-motion Wednesday night as he sent down Scott Schebler in the eighth.
Jacob deGrom’s Changeup – It was a great pitching duel Wednesday night in Washington, and deGrom barely edged out Strasburg for the Win. The Hair normally dominates with his Fastball, but this Changeup under Ian Desmond’s hands made us whistle.
GIF Of The Week
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below to crown the winner!
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