Building The Perfect MLB Pitcher
If you could mold an MLB pitcher from scratch, allowing him to throw any four individual pitches among today's pitchers, what is he throwing? SI baseball writers Emma Baccellieri and Max Goodman discuss their choices for the perfect pitcher.
Read the Full Video Transcript Here
Madelyn Burke: Last week, SI's Major League Baseball staff attempted to build the perfect pitching rotation. But what if one pitcher had all the tools to be every team's ace? I'm joined now by SI's Emma Baccellieri and Max Goodman. You guys posed the question: if you were to mold a pitcher from scratch, allowing him to throw any four individual pitches among today's pitchers, what is he throwing? So, Emma. I want to know, was there a pitch that was a consensus among the MLB staff?
Emma Baccellieri: Yeah. There were a couple that had overlap among different staffers, but unsurprisingly, the one that almost everyone picked was, if you want a curve ball, you're probably going to go with Charlie Morton. And there are all sorts of statistical ways to back that up, to look at the drop, the spin rate. But also if you just want to look at any gif of him embarrassing a hitter, that pretty much drives home why he's such a great pick in that spot for the curveball.
Madelyn Burke: Max, is there a big difference between what your list had and what Emma's had?
Max Goodman: Well, Emma and I both had Gerrit Cole's fastball, and then Jordan Hicks, if it's a two seamer sinker, whichever one you want to use, it was on a bunch of different perfect pitching formats, if you will. And he has more horizontal movement on that two seam sinker pitch going in on right handed hitters than his slider does. This exercise had so many different veterans and so many different young arms in the game. I think it's it's really exciting for all these different fan bases to see these different names, you know, from Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander, who were named a couple of times all the way to Hicks, or someone who's brand new, like a Tyler Glasnow, a lot of variety out there.
Madelyn Burke: And wouldn't it be great if you could just pick your best spot from each pitcher in the game? But, hey, they've all got their strengths and weaknesses. Emma and Max, thank you so much for the time.
Check out the full article here:
