The final round: Which starter has the best pitch in baseball?
By
Michael Clair
We began Wednesday morning with eight pitchers and one goal: to find the starter with the nastiest pitch in Major League Baseball. The competition was divided into four categories -- fastball, curveball, slider, changeup -- each with two nominees. On Thursday, one representative from each offering faced off against each other. And now, on Friday, we will decide: Who has the very best pitch in basebal? We look to you for help. Despite Max Scherzer firing his 11th 10-plus strikeout game on Thursday night, Kershaw easily dispatched the Nats starter with the biggest win of the competition so far. It shouldn't be too much of a surprise -- after all, Kershaw's curve has been described by Vin Scully as "Public Enemy No. 1." Honestly, once batters see the ball looping up and then coming crashing back down to the Earth, they might as well want to give up.
While Félix Hernández's dipping changeup has defeated plenty of batters in big league career, it wasn't enough to take down Sale and his sweeping slider. While Sale's mechanics are anything but pretty, his slider is. The lefty's breaking ball travels across the zone as if it were guided by the hand of fate, with batters left doing their best David Byrne impression as they ask, "How did that get there?"
So this is it, the moment of truth: Who has the best pitch of 2016?
