Atlanta Braves pitcher Spencer Strider did not win the National League Rookie of the Year Award.
He was one of the finalists, but voters ended up siding with his teammate, outfielder Michael Harris II.
Strider did have a chance to win, as he was one of the most spectacular players in the league, not just among rookies.
While he couldn’t take home the real thing, pitching specialist and Twitter personality Rob Friedman (the Pitching Ninja) offered him some consolation with a clever online award.
“2022 PitchingNinja Award for Prettiest Fastball. Winner: Spencer Strider. The Perfect 100mph Elevated Fastball,” Friedman tweeted, with a video of Strider striking out a hitter with a fastball high and away, right at the corner, looking.
2022 Pitching Ninja Award for Prettiest Fastball. 🏆💯😍
Winner: Spencer Strider.
The Perfect 100mph Elevated Fastball. pic.twitter.com/IMlkZtSsid
—Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) November 15, 2022
Strider Can Throw The Perfect Elevated Fastball
It is indeed the perfect elevated fastball: it’s in the strike zone, so the hitter will get a called strike if he doesn’t swing; yet it’s at a very uncomfortable part of the zone.
If you consider it travels at 100 mph, well, it’s safe to say it’s very, very hard to hit.
Strider had a fantastic debut season with the Braves,
In just 131.2 innings, he struck out an incredible 202 hitters.
That, if you were wondering, is equal to a whopping 13.81 strikeouts per nine frames.
He also finished with a brilliant 2.67 ERA, but sadly wasn’t at his best in the playoffs because of an untimely injury in September.
If he manages to pitch next season like he did in 2022, but over a larger sample, he will fight for the Cy Young Award in the National League.
He is clearly a legitimate ace on a team that has many of them.
