The hardest pitches to hit in Major League Baseball

It’s often said that one of the toughest things to do across all professional sports is hit a major-league fastball. The average Joe can sink a three-point shot or a 30-foot putt with practice, but only a select few have the ability to hit a 90-mph pitch.

Major league hitters are in a class of their own, but unfortunately for them, the pitchers are getting paid too. From Christy Mathewson’s screwball to Mariano Rivera’s cutter, there have been certain pitches through the ages that have been simply impossible to hit, even for the best in the business.

Advanced analytics came too late to quantify the effectiveness of pitches like those mentioned above, but we have the data for here and now. Without further ado, here are the five toughest pitches to hit in baseball, based on Fangraphs data compiled in 2020.

5. Marco Gonzales’ fastball

Despite throwing his fastball just 45.3% of the time – 57th among all players who pitched 50 or more innings in 2020 – Seattle Mariners starter Marco Gonzales led the majors in weighted fastball (wFB, 14.3) and weighted fastball per 100 pitches (wFB/C, 2.99).

The southpaw’s “heater” clocks in at just over 88 mph, but it obviously isn’t just going in a straight line. Gonzales had a career year in 2020, going 7-2 with a 3.10 ERA and an MLB-leading 9.47 strikeout/walk ratio.

4. Dallas Keuchel’s cutter

The 2020 MLB-leader in weighted cutter (9.7) and weighted cutter per 100 pitches (3.26) was White Sox hurler Dallas Keuchel. He mixed in other pitches too, but he threw his cutter at the sixth-highest rate in the majors (30.9%).  

Keuchel was a dark-horse Cy Young candidate in his first year with the South Siders, as he went 6-2 with a 1.99 ERA and a 1.089 WHIP.

3. Zach Davies’ changeup

Zach Davies’ changeup may not deserve that name, as he threw the pitch an MLB-leading 41.3% of the time in 2020, but it’s hard to argue with results.

Davies was the runaway leader in weighted changeup in 2020 (11.0, compared to Kenta Maeda’s 7.8 rating in second) and ranked sixth in weighted changeup per 100 pitches (2.53). Despite a solid season by the traditional metrics too (7-4, 2.73 ERA, 1.067 WHIP), Davies was dealt by the San Diego Padres to the Chicago Cubs as compensation for Yu Darvish.

2. Adam Wainwright’s curveball

The pitch that won the St. Louis Cardinals the 2006 NLCS is still getting results nearly 15 years later.

Adam Wainwright threw his curveball a major league-high 38.3% of the time in 2020 and recorded the highest weighted curveball (10.8) and second-highest weighted curveball per 100 pitches (3.03). This comes despite the pitch clocking in at 73.5 mph, the slowest among all pitchers in the Top 10 in curveball percentage.

Wainwright had a renaissance year in 2020, going 5-3 with a 3.15 ERA and 1.051 WHIP.

1. Dinelson Lamet’s slider

Dinelson Lamet came from out of nowhere to make a late-season Cy Young bid in 2020, and his weapon of choice was the slider.

Lamet was the runaway leader in weighted slider at 20.0, well-clear of Zach Plesac (11.4) in second place. That’s due in part to Lamet using his slider 53.4% of the time, also leaps-and-bounds ahead of second-place Clayton Kershaw (40.2%). Lamet was a solid fourth in weighted slider per 100 pitches (3.58).

An injury kept Lamet out of the playoffs in 2020, but he could be a key contributor to a Padres team with World Series aspirations if he replicates his numbers from last season (3-1, 2.09 ERA, 0.855 WHIP).