SF Giants pitchers threw the two nastiest pitches of 2024 according to FanGraphs

The SF Giants pitching staff did not have a ton to celebrate in 2024. The Giants ranked 19th in all of MLB with a 4.10 team ERA. However, according to FanGraphs, Giants pitchers threw the two nastiest pitches in the entire league in 2024.

This comes from Ben Clemens of FanGraphs who explains the methodology behind quantifying the "best pitch" in this article which is well worth the read. I tried understanding the methodology myself but long ago acknowledged that numbers and advanced stats were beyond me so I will leave that to the true number-heads to explain.

SF Giants pitchers threw the two nastiest pitches of 2024 according to FanGraphs

From my understanding, the rational used to determine what the best pitch is boils down to it being a perfect pitch in a perfect location. The kind of pitch that makes Giants color commentator Mike Krukow say point blank: "That's a perfect pitch." It typically has nasty movement that either fools a hitter into swinging or freezes them because the movement brings the ball back into the strike zone after the hitter had already given up on it and assumed it was a ball.

Based on the model FanGraphs used to calculate the best pitch, Giants ace Logan Webb was deemed to have thrown the best pitch of the year and Sean Hjelle threw the second best pitch.

Apparently this model loves sinkers on the inside corner of the plate thrown by right-handed pitchers to left-handed batters, because that is the exact pitch that both Webb and Hjelle threw.

The funny thing is that there was nothing all that remarkable about either pitch in terms of the game situation. Both were thrown in 3-2 counts, but Webb's occurred in the bottom of the 1st inning in a no-score game. Hjelle's occurred in the top of the 8th in a game the Giants trailed by two runs. Both were great pitches to be sure, but there is nothing about them that would have made you leap from your chair and shout, "That is one of the best pitches of 2024 right there!"

Clemens himself notes that the whole notion of a "best pitch" is a bit silly, but it is at least a fun exercise to entertain. The fact that Giants pitchers threw the two best pitches of the season according to a FanGraphs model may be small consolation for Giants fans, but we know that somewhere Farhan Zaidi is smiling. He sure did love his advanced metrics, didn't he?

Let's hope that Giants pitchers can throw some more nasty pitches in 2025 as they try and improve upon their lackluster 2024 as a pitching staff.