Every week we review the nastiest pitches from the previous week in glorious HD GIFs. Don’t forget to vote for your favorite pitch and check back on Saturday to see if it will be in contention for the GIF of the First Quarter Contest. Week 6’s winner was Jose Berrios’ Curveball. Berrios makes hitters look silly with his unbelievable breaking ball.
Did we miss your favorite pitch? Send us a tweet next time @PitcherList and we’ll GIF it up + give you a shoutout here in the article.
Luis Castillo’s Two-Seam Fastball
https://gfycat.com/miniatureamusingflamingo
Luis Castillo has an amazing combination of velocity and movement that keeps hitters off balance. This fastball moves almost as much as his changeup but comes in at 97 mph. With two pitches moving so dramatically about 9 mph apart, even hitters such as Kris Bryant end up whiffing.
Justin Verlander’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/WeightyBlissfulFlamingo
Justin Verlander was dealing on Wednesday, with Nicholas Castellanos being just one of nine strikeout victims for the future Hall of Famer over seven innings of work. The most impressive thing about this curveball is that Verlander already threw an almost identical pitch to Castellanos earlier in the at-bat that he barely checked his swing on. It takes true craftiness (or maybe just poor plate discipline) to get a guy on the same pitch twice.
Chris Sale’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/FancyLoneBasenji
It was a career night for Chris Sale: 17 strikeouts, seven innings or less, and a no decision! Whatever I write here will not do proper justice to Sale’s performance, so I’ll just leave strikeout number 17 from last night right here so you can watch history happen over and over again. Enjoy, folks.
Jose Berrios’ Curveball
https://gfycat.com/PitifulPlumpHarrierhawk
Jose Berrios and his monster curveball are no stranger to the nasty pitch roundup, and this time around it was future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols looking silly against the 24-year-old phenom. Things would go south for the Puerto Rican righty not long after this, but this pitch will end up on plenty of highlight reels.
Chaz Roe’s Slider
https://gfycat.com/officialperiodiclarva
Kicking off this post-Mother’s Day slate of nastiest pitches is this magical slider from Chaz Roe, which he somehow was able to will back in the zone to strike out DJ Lemaiheu and end the seventh inning.
Jose Alvarado’s Two-seam Fastball
https://gfycat.com/skinnydelayedherald
Jose Alvarado left mouths agape with that cartoonish break he gets on his high speed two-seamer. Gary Sanchez is so close to fouling this pitch off. The vicious spin, however, takes the pitch away from Sanchez’s bat and almost out of Travis D’arnaud’s glove.
Tyler Glasnow’s Curveball
https://gfycat.com/OddballFelineLeveret
At this point, I’m starting to run out of superlatives to describe how ridiculous Tyler Glasnow’s curveball is. Brett Gardner gives us a solid entrant for ugliest swings of the year though, as Glasnow continued cruising to a sterling ERA of 1.47.
Which was your favorite pitch? Vote below and the winner may be featured in the GIF of the First Quarter Contest.
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Graphic by Michael Haas (@digitalHaas on Twitter)