MLB: Send The Freeze to All-Star Week, and more fun ideas

Nasty Pitch-Off

Fun Rating: 9/10

This was the first idea that came to mind when thinking over fun additions to All-Star Weekend. Maybe it’s my hidden love for pitcher’s duels, but there’s nothing that quite gets me out of my seat like a filthy breaking ball or a blazing fastball. This could be done with an empty batter’s box, or toss a civilian in there (with some serious head and body protection) to really show just how filthy these pitches are.

Drawbacks: 7/10

Asking an already taxed portion of our baseball population to put their already weathered arms on display for something other than a real-life game seems a bit callous.

Likelihood: 2/10

With pitching injuries as prevalent as they are in the modern era, as awesome as this event would be, it seems like All-Star Weekend would have to be on absolute life support for the owners and front offices to sign off on this one.

Contenders: 8/10

Oh, there are just so many great options for this one. I’m pretty sure I am contractually obligated to embed Jose Berrios into each Call to the Pen article, so here’s our prohibitive favorite:

That thing moves like a wiffleball – just crazy.

However, Berrios would have plenty of competition. There’s Aaron Nola’s fastball, Dellin Betances’ curveball, and Clayton Kershaw’s literally anything. (By the way, this event could totally be sponsored by Pitcher List, one of the best websites and Twitter follows out there.) Honestly, this field could be probably 100 pitchers deep and we’d still see some absolutely filthy pitches from the “lower tier.” There are just so many talented arms in baseball these days.