Image credit: William Purnell-USA TODAY Sports
Translated by Pepe Latorre
MLB pitchers had thrown 362,623 pitches as of last Saturday. If we were to rank them all from best to 362,623, one of them would have to finish last. To find the worst pitch of all, we don’t have to analyze all 362,623 — thank goodness! We can filter out a few variables.
Of course, this is a somewhat subjective exercise. Your opinion of the worst pitch could be a ridiculous pitch that doesn’t even make it to the plate, like this one from Bowden Francis:
The main goal of a pitch is to get batters out, but the secondary mission is to not look like that on TV, especially while the ball is still in your hand:
This pitch traveled about 10 feet, or about ⅙ of the distance to home plate, but it was only ball one. The runner on first, Jahmai Jones, didn’t even advance to second in the ninth inning of a 16-5 game. Can we call this offensive indifference? Later in Anthony Volpe’s at-bat there would be an inning-ending flyout.
What to say about this “throw” by Patrick Wisdom with a 0-2:
He throws a fastball like a third baseman would because he’s a third baseman, but is it that bad? It’s a non-competitive pitch that would never make the top 350,000, but then again, Wisdom is a non-competitive pitcher. The result was just a ball, not too catastrophic for the at-bat, much like Francis’ error. Wilyer Abreu would end up grounding out to Wisdom to end the inning. It’s hard to argue that a pitch was bad if the batter ended up out.
Results matter in pitching because no pitch exists on its own. Pitch is sequential, with each pitch building on the previous ones and setting up what comes next. Even in a 0-0 count, the pitch is intended to get ahead of the batter, taking into account what happened earlier in the game or even the last time the batter and pitcher faced each other.
With all of the above in mind, there are arguments to say that this could be the worst release of the year:
Reed Garrett’s fastball tops out at 99 mph. That may be the only saving grace, and it may be enough to disqualify it as the worst pitch, but it’s a four-seam fastball right down the middle. On an 0-2 count…with two outs…with the bases loaded…and with Aaron Judge at the plate! If there was ever a time for a slider down and away, this was it.
As expected, Judge leads MLB with four homers on 0-2 counts, but that was the only one on a fastball up the middle. When you’re the best hitter on the planet, you’re going to do some damage on pitches that weren’t all that appealing, like this splitter from Kevin Gausman:
Throwing a fastball up the middle on an 0-2 count is usually a bad decision, but sometimes it works. In fact, it appears to be a good strategy against Willi Castro. He’s having a great season with a .276/.357/.452 slash line and a league-leading 12 HBP. He’s played 19 or more games at five different positions, but in the eight times he’s faced a fastball on an 0-2 count he’s gotten a single, a flyout, two foul balls, a swinging strike and, against all odds, three called strikes. Here’s one of them:
Mason Miller does that to a lot of people, and a pitcher can often get away with it if his location errors come on pitches going 101 mph. Apparently, Jack Flaherty can do it at 96 mph, too:
Ah, y Caleb Ferguson a 94 mph:
That’s the tricky thing about this exercise and pitching in general. Can a 99 mph fastball be the worst pitch of the year if a 94 mph fastball in the same spot was the third strike? Situational factors matter: bases loaded, two outs for Judge vs. leading off the ninth for Castro. Still, Ferguson made a bad pitch that led to a great result, but because of Castro’s poor swing, not the execution of the pitch. He might rank 250,000 out of 362,623.
Check out this pitch from Cole Irvin to Masyn Winn:
A 79 mph slider on an 0-2 count to a rookie shortstop who had only one home run at that point in the season (May 22). Notice where the bat makes contact with the ball:
The purpose of this pitch was to get Winn to chase out of the zone, and it worked. He had no chance of putting the ball in play, let alone driving it 375 feet.
Which pitch was worse: Ferguson’s fastball to Castro or Irvin’s slider to Winn? Sometimes pitching is about playing the percentages, and improbable outcomes are possible.
No matter what pitchers do, the outcome of a pitch is not solely up to them. The batter has a lot of say in determining what the worst pitch a major league pitcher can throw is, and for that matter, so do the catcher and the umpire. Well, not always. If the pitcher ends up on the ground, there is nothing anyone else can do to affect the outcome positively or negatively. Congratulations, Bowden Francis.
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2024-07-03 11:36:25
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