Here are a bunch of pitchers in the Blue Jays’ system to get hyped about

Pitching, at its best, is a beautiful ruthless painting that deserves to be hung on a wall for people to stare at for hours. The grip. Deception. The wind up. Release. It is splashed paint all around home, sometimes it’s anarchy, pure chaos, and sometimes it’s precision.

Precise. Perfect. Powerful. Beauty.

I’ve spent hours this summer documenting the farm, taking in the minor air, and here is a collection of my favourite pitches in the system, in no particular order.

Tyler Murray, the voice of the Fisher Cats, said during a broadcast that Joey Murray’s fastball is known as the ‘invisible fastball’ because of his high spin rate. He spins the red stitching on the baseball, until all 108 double stitches disappear. Hitters aren’t able to pick up what it is and that is why they are unable to connect on it even though it sits in the low 90s. It’s deceptive. It can’t be read.

Snead spins baseball. They slide. It’s cool. The surf kissing the sand.

Spinning baseballs sliding through the air.

Since writing my article for Fangraphs’ The Hardball Times, Patrick Murphy has been toe-tapped out of the season and that makes me sad. His curveball is art, bending beauty. His curveball dances 66-feet-and-six-inches and breaks swinging hearts.

He is currently on the IL because he is dealing with shoulder fatigue from working on fixing the toe-tap issue, which is a terrible rule. This rule has broken the bend for most of this summer, but his bending path is still art.

The samurai slays all who challenge. A bloody scene. The defeated, one by one, stabbed by speed.

Splashing it with precision. I’m all in on SWR. And his 18-year-old break.

And, as you know, he is now a Buffalo Bison.

He throws the baseball hard, high, and low, as he uses his fastball as two separate pitches. He also changes things up, which is another piece of pitching art that deserves to be shared.

And so is his ability to paint his fastball.

His brother told me Anthony’s curveball is sometimes a slider, sometimes a curveball, ” it’s a mystery even to him”. It’s a mystery to me, too. Deceptive lefty dirt.

The break with all the dance.

Anarchy. Pure Jackson Pollock.

The waves are coming and they are going to crash into Toronto and break their way to the future shore. From Pardinho’s changeup to Patrick Murphy’s curveball to Joey Murray’s ‘invisiball’ to Nate Pearson’s unruly fastball and slider, it was a pleasure to walk you through some of my favourite summer pitches – pitches that are the furthest thing from minor.