Justin Verlander
Houston Astros ace, Justin Verlander, comes in at number three on the list. Verlander put up more stellar numbers in 2018, adding to what should be a Hall of Fame career.
In fact, at the age of 35 Verlander just finished arguably his best season. He had career bests in strikeout rate, walk rate, FIP, xFIP and the second lowest ERA of his career. Just an incredible season deserving of a Cy Young award.
Verlander’s success unsurprisingly stems from his incredible fastball. His fastball features good velocity, good movement and the highest spin rate in baseball. All of this equates to an excellent 29.33% whiff rate and a minuscule .275 xwOBA against on his fastball.
The only aspect to Verlander’s fastball that is not elite is his 20% ground ball rate, but this is mostly by design as he pitches up in the zone with his high spin heater which produces a swing and a miss nearly 30% of the time and weak fly balls on contact.
After a dip from 2013-2016 Verlander has also gotten his fastball velocity back closer to his early career levels. Verlander is not a pitcher that gets good extension however and he has a lower effective velocity than his actual velocity numbers. However, the incredible spin that he puts on the baseball coupled with the good movement the pitch has more than makes up for the difference.