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To anybody that knows me, its no secret that I am obsessed with the pitching aspect of baseball. When I took this position at MMO, one of the first things I did was create a spreadsheet with every pitcher and every pitch in the entire Mets organization. The results were staggering as I was truly blown away by how many plus pitches I saw.

Not just from Jacob deGrom or Noah Syndergaard, but from guys like Hector Santiago and Luis Avilan just to name a few. It got me thinking, I wonder what the five best pitches in the organization are.

No surprise here, I landed on three Jacob deGrom pitches (Fastball, Changeup, Slider). So for the purposes of this article, I removed the Cy Young Award winner from the discussion and this is what I was left with…

For any terms you may not be familiar with check out the FanGraphs Library here.

Zack Wheeler – Fastball

pVAL	25.5
O-Swing%	29.80%
Zone%	57.30%
SwStri%	9.30%
BAA	0.236

Surprisingly, this was the best pitch (according to pVAL) in the entire Mets organization last season including Jacob deGrom. Wheeler has made great advances over the years regarding his fastball, which had its highest average velocity in 2018 at 96.5 MPH. Not only did Wheeler’s fastball velocity rank in the 89th percentile but it ranked in the 65th percentile in fastball spin.

Also, for the first time in his career, Wheeler saw his fastball rank in the top-25 (min 1,000 pitches) in average spin rate at 2,310 RPM. Zack clearly realized how good his fastball had become which led to the usage rate jumping from just 37.2% in 2017 to 58.1% in 2018. Think he had a talk or two with Seth Lugo?

Edwin Diaz – Fastball

pVAL	14.2
O-Swing%	25.70%
Zone%	60.10%
SwStri%	13.40%
BAA	0.188

It’s a beautiful sight to see an off-season addition appear on this list as Diaz has  a phenomenal fastball. He uses his fastball 62.4% of the time with an average velocity at 97.9, hitting triple digits when necessary. It lands in the 97th percentile of fastball velocity and the 74th percentile of fastball spin.

Diaz likes to locate the pitch middle away to left-handed hitters and high and in to right-handed hitters, generating 115 whiffs last season. As long as Diaz can keep his walk rate closer to the 6.1% it was last year rather than the 11.5% it was in 2017, he will have another dominant season.

Seth Lugo – Curveball

pVAL	9.9
O-Swing%	41.30%
Zone%	48.40%
SwStri%	10.90%
BAA	0.181

The famous Seth Lugo curveball. With an absolutely disgusting 3,203 RPM, it’s no surprise that hitters only managed to bat .181 against the pitch last season. It has become his go-to pitch at a 31.8% usage rate, which is significantly higher than the 17.4% usage rate of 2017.

Effective against both LHH and RHH, Lugo lives at the bottom of the zone with his curveball which results in a ton of whiffs. The chase rate is incredible at a 41.30% O-Swing% and the overall 17.0% soft contact percentage is something special as well. The Spin Rate King.

Edwin Diaz – Slider

pVAL	9.9
O-Swing%	44.30%
Zone%	34.30%
SwStri%	28.4%
BAA	0.121

A familiar face on this list. Not only is Diaz’s fastball one of the best pitches in the entire organization, but his slider also makes the cut as well. Good luck to any hitter who has to step in the box and see a 98 MPH fastball followed by a drifting 90 MPH slider.

With the slider being his primary put away selection, Diaz racked up an absurd 75 strikeouts on the pitch last season. Also, LHH are hitting just .078 against Diaz’s slider, so expect to see more of the same in 2019. If he had another pitch, it would probably make this list as well. Get excited Mets fans.

Seth Lugo – Fastball

pVAL	9.0
O-Swing%	26.20%
Zone%	58.10%
SwStri%	10.50%
BAA	0.170

Full disclosure: this spot was supposed to go to Justin Wilsons fastball (9.1 pVAL). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a GIF for it so here we are. Also, I figured another Seth Lugo pitch would make Mets fans happy. The spin rate king is tossing his Fastball at 2,186 RPM which is in the 50th percentile while his fastball velocity is in the 68th percentile at 94.4 MPH.

Arguably a better pitch than his curveball, Lugo stays high in the zone which gives it that rising effect and allows it to get on hitters before they recognize it. The future is bright for Seth and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make an even bigger impact for the Mets this year.

Thanks to PitcherList for the Gifs.