Major League Baseball

MLB All-Star Game 2022: Pitching Ninja's 5 favorite All-Star pitches

Published Jul. 21, 2022 8:33 p.m. ET

By Rob Friedman, aka "Pitching Ninja"
FOX Sports MLB Analyst

I got to attend the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, and it was a blast!

Here are some of my favorite pitches from this year's game.

Nasty Nestor's mechanics

Nestor Cortes' creativity on the mound is unmatched in today's game. From varying arm slots to ridiculous windups, he's a mad scientist on the bump.

Here are the Yankees ace's normal mechanics compared to one of his patented wacky windups. Absurd!

Alek Manoah, overlays

Manoah was outstanding Tuesday in terms of both personality and stuff. He had three strikeouts in his only inning of work and provided live color commentary while he was doing it!

Here's an overlay of Manoah's two-seam fastball/sinker and four-seam fastball. You can see how much more arm-side movement the sinker has. Even though those pitches were the same velocity, the movement is extremely different, showing how tough hitting can be.

So while you might guess correctly on the velocity, the movement will still get you.

Manoah shook off John Smoltz's on-air suggestion to go with a slider, giving us some insight into why he threw Ronald Acuña Jr. a "heater" after his Sinker. I love hearing pitching strategy straight from the horse's mouth in real time!

Even though Manoah decided to throw a four-seam fastball in that sequence, Smoltz's suggestion of a slider wasn't necessarily wrong.

Manoah's slider and sinker combination is also very tough on a hitter, as you can see in this overlay.

Manoah is a rock star in the making for the Blue Jays.

Devin Williams' airbender

Williams' changeup is one of the few pitches in baseball that has its very own name — and for good reason.

Check out the incredible movement of this airbender! It had up to 22 inches of arm-side break during this JD Martinez at-bat, showing why it's one of the best pitches in baseball.

On the red carpet, Devin told me he packed a few airbenders in his bag for the occasion.

Emmanuel Clase's cutter (home plate view)

I love seeing home plate views of pitches, and thankfully, the broadcast had some spectacular views. In my opinion, none was better than this angle of Clase's 100 mph flaming cutter.

That movement is nasty — you can see why he struck out the side on 10 pitches and got the save. Nearly an Emm-aculate Inning!

Ryan Helsley's 103 mph fastball

Helsley really brought the heat, throwing some of the fastest pitches in recent All-Star Game history.

Here's his delivery on a 103 mph fastball, as seen from my seat — you can see how explosive Helsley is!

Bonus: HR Derby pitches

I'm @PitchingNinja (not HittingNinja), so obviously, I focus on pitching during the Home Run Derby.

For a Derby pitcher, consistency is key. And no one did it better this year than Franmy Peña, who was pitching to budding Mariners superstar Julio Rodríguez. This is a six-pitch overlay, and you can see how tight that grouping is, serving them up on a platter for Julio.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Tomás Pérez threw this absolutely filthy pitch and got a swing-and-miss from Acuña. Totally unhittable stuff from Pérez, albeit not the best time for it.

Rob Friedman is a pitching analyst on Twitter and YouTube, and his work has been featured on many Major League Baseball broadcasts.