Noah Syndergaard Throws The Ball So Dang Hard

Big-ass Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard had a good game against the Phillies last night, striking out eight and allowing just one run in seven innings. He’s struck out 29 jamokes in his first 20 innings of the season, and he’s done it by throwing the ball really, really hard.

According to MLB’s Statcast leaderboard, Syndergaard owns the two hardest pitches in baseball. His four-seam fastball has an average velocity of 98.4 mph, and his sinker comes in just a tick below that, at 98.3 mph. Those pitches are even more evil when you look at his perceived speed, a stat that takes into account how close a pitcher is to the plate when he releases the ball. Syndergaard is huge and covers a lot of ground when he launches himself toward home, and that effectively turns his 98-mph sinker and fastball into 99-mph pitches. (By way of comparison, the perceived speed of Craig Kimbrel’s fastball, which carries an average of velocity of 98 mph, is only 97 mph.)

Syndergaard’s brute strength was on full display against the poor Phillies last night. He threw 12 pitches that broke 100 mph in his seven innings, and the average velocity of both his sinker and four-seam fastball were over 99 mph for the game. After setting hitters up with the fastball and sinker, he’d put them away with a 92-mph slider that boasts an absurd 36-percent whiff rate on the season (stats via Brooks Baseball).

I mean, look at how unfair this pitch is:

This man throws so hard that he branded his poor catcher last night:

That’s terrifying.

Photo via AP