Greatest Pitches of All Time
- takeyourbaseblog
- Feb 10, 2020
- 4 min read
By Matt Wynkoop
When posed with the question “who are the greatest pitchers to ever lace them up,” you’ll probably get a similar list from anyone regardless of age. Nolan Ryan, Sandy Koufax, Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens come to mind. All have a reasonable claim to be in that conversation and many more can be discussed for their absolute dominance on the mound. What isn’t always discussed though, are the individual pitches that gained them that success. I mean remember when Daisuke came over with a gyro? That was as weird as it was awesome. So let’s dig into some individual pitches and who used them most effectively.
Cutter
If you’ve watched two minutes of baseball in the past decade, you already know where this is headed. The greatest to ever do it, the closer of all closers, The Sandman, Mariano Rivera. Every other pitch will have some degree of competition, but just like Mo’s Hall of Fame candidacy there’s absolutely no question that he takes this category. It’s crazy enough that he came from Panama, where he used a literal piece of cardboard as a glove and became the first and only unanimous Hall of Famer ever. The crazier thing is that he got to the Hall using essentially one pitch, the cut fastball. Hitters who faced Mariano were very similar to the 2017 Astros, in that they knew exactly which pitch was coming. The only problem was that Mo’s cutter was so filthy not even garbage can banging could save them(you’re welcome Yankees fans). Looking at pitch usage stats can sometimes be tough because it can be tough to distinguish between a cutter and any other type of fastball. But according to fangraphs, Mo was using the cutter over 70% of the time for the last seven years of his career. Over his career he boasted, an 8.22 K/9, much of that coming from the cutter and solidifying it as the best of all time.
Knuckleball
Probably the coolest pitch to ever grace us with its presence is the knuckleball. The knuckleball has been thrown since the early 1900s, becoming more popularized by brothers Phil and Joe Niekro across three decades; the 60s, 70s and 80s. More contemporary examples of the knuckleball come from Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey. Dickey reinvented himself with his knuckleball, and he enjoyed two or three years of sustained success with that pitch, including his Cy Young year in 2012 with the New York Mets. He mixed up speeds like we had never seen before. While the knuckleball generally comes in at slow speeds, R.A. was pushing 80 miles per hour with the erratic pitch. It was incredible for that short stretch but here, I have to give the nod to Phil Niekro. His knuckleball helped him to sustain his career for 24 seasons, contributed to a career 3.35 ERA and not to mention allowed him to pitch 245 complete games. That's right, 245 complete games which is unheard of in today's baseball world. The icing on the cake was his enshrinement into Cooperstown, immortalizing Niekro and his knuckler.
Slider
The slider when used effectively is one of the best out-pitches in baseball. Not to mention it might be the best way for a pitcher to make a batter look stupid. There have been so many incredible sliders over the years. Hall of famers like Gibson, Eckersley, Smoltz and Carlton all have employed a slider to make a name for themselves. Even Francisco Rodriguez used his insane slider in his 62 save season back in 2008. All these dudes spent their careers baffling hitters with their sliders. None did quite as well though as the Big Unit, Randy Johnson. All the evidence comes from this video from this iconic video from the 1993 MLB All-Star game.
Not only did everyone in America learn of the filthiness of Johnson's slider, but it also got John Kruk one step closer to his inevitable career of ranking ballpark foods. Johnson won five Cy Youngs, a World Series MVP and ultimately was enshrined in Cooperstown and much of that success can be attributed to the slider.
Curveball
It seems fitting that the curveball is the last pitch I dig into here. Curveballs have so many ways of making hitters look like idiots. There have been so many great one’s over the years. When you look up best curveballs all-time, pretty much everyone on that list are guys who played several decades ago. The likes of Satchel Paige, Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax. The consensus seems to be that Koufax had the best of the bunch, so I did a deeper dive and watched this video of Koufax highlights from the 1965 World Series.
Take a second to look through and well, the consensus was right. Koufax’s curve was nasty and virtually unhittable. So for this list, we give Koufax the nod as well. For fun though, let’s take a look at some more modern examples of the curveball. Another Dodgers lefty comes to mind in Clayton Kershaw. His 12-6 curve has fueled his amazing career that includes three Cy Youngs and an MVP. Another that comes to mind is the guy literally called Uncle Charlie, Adam Wainwright. Carlos Beltran was fooled by Wainwright’s curve in the 2006 NLCS and Mets fans still haven’t forgiven him(although Mets fans may have different reasons to resent Carlos Beltran now). Maybe the nastiest in recent memory is that of Barry Zito. Zito had an interesting career path; complete dominance out of the gate followed by years of mediocrity and then a slight resurgence at the end of his career including a World Series title with the Giants. Here’s a quick highlight reel of the Bay Area hero’s curve.
Now I know not all pitches were covered in this article, I just chose four that I found most interesting. Fastballs are great but they’re like excuses or assholes, everyone has one. We can dig into fastballs and any other missed pitches in another article. Now it’s time to get weirdly excited about watching guys throw their nasty pitches in bullpen sessions in Florida and Arizona and build the hype for the 2020 MLB season.
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