Pitching Grips

Brad Penner and Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images Welcome to part two of our pitching superlatives series. I’ll be here all week covering the pitches that stick out the most. Yesterday, I discussed the pitches that stood out the most due to their velocity . Today, we’re talking about movement, but before we get into it, I need to issue a correction. Yesterday, I credited James McCann with throwing the slowest individual pitch of 2026, but it has been pointed out to me that McCann only threw the slowest tracked pitch of 2026. Twenty-one times, a position player threw a pitch so funky that Statcast threw up its electronic shoulders and assigned it a velocity of “–”. Often, it did so because the pitch was so slow that the cameras didn’t know what to make of it, or perhaps (just a theory) because the slowness of the pitch forced the pitcher to throw such a high-arcing rainbow that it was out of the path where Statcast expects to find pitches. I mean, what are you supposed to do with th...

Matthew Wood watched the World Series from afar, and he did so with a close eye on former teammates. Currently competing in the Arizona Fall League, the 25-year-old Milwaukee Brewers prospect caught a pair of the championship club’s starters when they were still down on the farm. I asked him about those experiences — both the observing and the receiving — prior to Milwaukee’s Game 5 clincher. “It’s been really cool,” said Wood, who is suiting up for the Scottsdale Scorpions. “It’s been especially cool to see guys that I’ve played with in the World Series. Some of our game times are conflicting, but I’ve been going back to watch the ones I missed, checking in on the guys. What they’re doing is unbelievable. I’m excited for everyone involved.” Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson are two of those players. What was it like for Wood to work with them as they climbed the proverbial ladder? “Catching them in the minor leagues, you kind of know that they’re going...

At the outset of the World Series, I noted that the Brewers had reached the Fall Classic for the first time in 44 years despite not getting much length from their starting pitchers. Through the National League Championship Series, Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser and company averaged just under four innings per turn, an average that didn’t clear that low bar until The Miz… Source * This article was originally published here

Katie Stratman-Imagn Images Free agency begins five days after the end of the World Series. As in other recent seasons, FanGraphs is once again facilitating a contract crowdsourcing project, with the idea being to harness the wisdom of the crowd to better understand and project the 2026-27 free agent market. In recent years, we’ve added a few features to these ballots based on reader feedback. You now have the option to indicate that a player will only receive a minor league contract, or won’t receive a contract at all. If there is a player option, team option, or opt out in a player’s contract, you’ll be able to indicate whether you think he will remain with his current team or become a free agent. Statistics are prorated to full season values where noted. Unless otherwise indicated, the projected WAR figures are from the first cut of the 2027 Steamer600 projections. Below are ballots for 12 of this year’s free agents — in this case, one last group of relievers. Source * This a...

Katie Stratman-Imagn Images Free agency begins five days after the end of the World Series. As in other recent seasons, FanGraphs is once again facilitating a contract crowdsourcing project, with the idea being to harness the wisdom of the crowd to better understand and project the 2026-27 free agent market. In recent years, we’ve added a few features to these ballots based on reader feedback. You now have the option to indicate that a player will only receive a minor league contract, or won’t receive a contract at all. If there is a player option, team option, or opt out in a player’s contract, you’ll be able to indicate whether you think he will remain with his current team or become a free agent. Statistics are prorated to full season values where noted. Unless otherwise indicated, the projected WAR figures are from the first cut of the 2027 Steamer600 projections. Below are ballots for 12 of this year’s free agents — in this case, a group of relievers, some of whom have starting...

In a different universe – perhaps one in which Junior Caminero fielded William Contreras’ two-out bouncer in the top of the fifth inning and fired to first base rather than second – Chandler Simpson’s stunning, self-obliterating catch in the second inning would have been the lasting memory of Game 3, and maybe the entire 2026 World Series. In service of the sublime, Simpson hurled himself into… Source * This article was originally published here