Charlie Morton
The resurgent Charlie Morton takes the top spot on our best curveball list. There is an important thing to note about the top of this list before diving too deep into Morton himself. These pitches were ranked on a scale of 500 points with #2 Nick Pivetta and #6 Aaron Nola separated by only 13 points. Morton’s curveball outranked Pivetta’s by 29 points! By this method Morton had far and away the best curveball of 2018.
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His curve ranked near the top of just about every category. Morton’s mastery of the pitch starts with the movement. This pitch had more horizontal movement than any other curveball in the game while also having decent downward movement.
Morton’s curve featured one of the highest spin rates in the game making the movement play up as it was hard and sharp. Batters also showed us how dominant this pitch was by swinging and missing at 46% of the curveballs he threw and only producing a .199 xwOBA against. Morton was able to achieve all of this with the pitch while also throwing it a whopping 29.2% of the time.
There are a few factors that have led to Morton’s new found success as an Astro but his work with his curveball is certainly one of the big ones. Morton is one of the more intriguing free agent cases for the winter as he now has a two-year track record of being a top-end starting pitcher, however, he isn’t getting any younger and still carries with him a checkered injury history. One thing is for sure though, his curveball is among the game’s elite pitches.
That’s Call To The Pen’s look at the best curveballs in the game. Anyone you think was missing? Anyone too high? Comment below!