The nastiest pitches in baseball end with ... a sword

mlb.com

There have been weak swings for decades, of course. Uncomfortable hacks. Awkward cuts. But in the baseball world of 2024, there’s a far more entertaining and descriptive way to talk about them. They are swords, as popularized by Rob Friedman (a.k.a., Pitching Ninja) since 2017.

A reference to the quote "don't chop at it, it's not a sword" from the 2006 film “The Benchwarmers,” a sword is when a pitcher fools a hitter so badly that he forces a non-competitive swing, one where a batter either regrets his choice or can’t stop himself from taking a hack that looks so ugly it ends up going viral on social media.

SNIP

How is a sword defined? It’s basically trying to put parameters on a feeling, trying to put borders around what is at its core just: Wow, did that batter look terrible there. (Or: Wow, did that pitcher throw such a nasty pitch that he made the batter look terrible there, as so much of Friedman’s work is pitching-positive.) That, then, is exactly what we did, with MLB data scientist Clay Nunnally leading the charge based on feedback from Friedman and others. In order to be a sword, a swing must:

• Be a swinging strike (no fouls)

• Cross the front face of home plate

• Be an “incomplete swing,” defined as a swing where the head of the bat crosses a line set at 5 inches ahead of the front of the plate but does not return back through it

• Have bat speed that is in the 10th percentile or lower for that player, to make clear that the swing was not fully unleashed, and no more than 20 mph in the final tracked frames, to avoid “full swings”

As we said: it’s putting data to a vibe, math to a mood, science to the art of making your opponent regret getting out of bed that morning.

Full story and video examples: https://www.mlb.com/news/statcast-measures-swords-stat-for-pitchers

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So now a "nasty pitch" followed by an "embarrassing swing" has a name?

Okay.