Here at the Daily Dot, we swap GIF images with each other every morning. Now we’re looping you in. In the Morning GIF, we feature a popular—or just plain cool—GIF we found on Reddit, Canvas, or elsewhere on the Internet.
Just how hard is it to get a hit off of Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish? Hard enough that you can’t even tell which of five very different pitches he’s throwing until they’ve left his hand. Here, let the GIF explain:
Redditor Dshep, a Rangers fan, put the GIF together after Darvish’s start against the Angels Wednesday. He explained:
An experiment in showing a variety of pitch types in a unique way. Used 5 pitches from last night; a 97 mph 4 seam fastball, 96 mph 2-seam fastball, 85 mph slider, 78 mph slider with a different grip that is more vertical, and a 64 mph slow curve.
He also throws a cutter and splitter/changeup regularly but I figured those would make it too messy.
Dshep also included a labeled version, complete with Darvish’s ridiculous range of speeds:
As for Darvish, he pitched allowing only three hits and no runs, and grabbing 11 strikeouts and the win.
No wonder.
Image via Wikimedia
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