Since the time Noah Syndergaard first appeared on the mound for the Mets, we have constantly heard how he throws more 100 MPH fastballs than anybody in the sport. He is repeating it all over again as fans stare in awe at the radar gun readings with each fastball Syndergaard unleashes. Fact is when it comes to throwing the ball over 100 MPH, there is no pitcher in baseball than Syndergaard.
And conversely, when it comes to throwing a curveball with a high spin rate, there is no one better in baseball than Seth Lugo. We first saw it when he got Anthony Rizzo to swing and miss at a curveball that hit him in the foot:
(Note: Gary improperly referred to it as a slider.)
What is strange is that even with Lugo having the most impressive curveball in the major leagues, no one has really touted him for it. Until now. In Jeff Passan’s “25 Things You Didn’t Know About Baseball” the very first thing on his list is the incredible spin rate on Lugo’s curveball.
At the time, the curveball Lugo threw to Rizzo had the highest spin rate (3,485 rpm) of any curveball ever measured in the Statcast Era. If you think that curveball to Rizzo was impressive, Lugo actually threw an even better one to Xavier Scruggs. That curveball measured 3,498 rpm making that one the best curveball ever thrown in this era.
Overall, Lugo has thrown more curveballs over 3,300 rpm than any other pitcher in baseball as recorded by Statcast. In fact, he has done it 76 times in his brief career. The rest of baseball combined has done it just 34 times. It is all the more impressive when you consider that Lugo has only pitched in 58.2 innings as a major leaguer.
Right now, there is a real debate as to what is the best single pitch among all the pitchers on the Mets staff. Is it Syndergaard’s fastball or slider? Could it be Jeurys Familia‘s sinker? It could be any one of those. It may also just be Lugo’s curveball – the same curveball Lugo has used to position himself as the Mets third starter come the postseason.
