One of the most attention-grabbing pitches of the playoffs so far was LA Dodgers’ RHP Brusdar Graterol’s 102.5 MPH sinker against the Giants, and it’s not just the speed that makes this pitch unique! We’ve estimated the pitchLogic numbers for this sinker so we can break down what makes it special.

There’s no doubt that Graterol is one of the hardest throwers in baseball. In fact, he has thrown the top 30 fastest pitches of the playoffs so far. This particular pitch was the hardest pitch thrown in the last 3 playoffs. In addition to the triple digit velo, Graterol gets 19 inches of arm side run. This is nearly 5 inches more than the MLB average sinker! If the average sinker was thrown at 102.5, we would expect it to spin at 2341 RPM. Graterol proves that you can have nasty stuff with modest spin rates, as his sinker has only 2059 RPM of total spin.