Request-a-GIF: A.J. Griffin’s Curvepiece

Reader Well-Beered Englishman, who has likely sired many children on even more continents, has a request that, against all odds, falls within the purview of the present author. A request for GIFs, is what kind of request. For multiple GIFs, in fact, of Oakland A’s right-hander A.J. Griffin — and, specifically, for GIFs of A.J. Griffin’s curveball.

Provided the PITCHf/x data at Brooks Baseball is accurate — and who would suspect otherwise, besides some overly suspicious jerk? — Griffin threw 13 curves during his Friday start at Texas, of which a total of five were taken for strikes and four for balls. According to Harry Pavlidis, about twice as many curves are taken for balls as strikes in the majors, suggesting that, in addition to being as shapely and refulgent as a young Brigitte Bardot, Griffin’s curve is also rather effective.

Below are the requested GIFs, my fellow Americans.

GIFs like this one, of Elvis Andrus taking strike three in the first inning:

And this one, of Mike Napoli taking strike three in the second inning:

And, finally, this one of Leonys Martin taking strike one, immediately after Mike Napoli took strike three in the second inning: