The Ten Most Intimidating Pitchers in Baseball
Guest Post From Our Fans Over At maxfrankel.com
The Ten Most Intimidating Pitchers in Baseball
We’ve decided to compile a list of the ten most intimidating active pitchers in baseball (with one small exception). These are not necessarily the best pitchers in the league, just the ones we’d least like to step into the box against for whatever reason:
10. Carlos Zambrano, Chicago Cubs: Big Z is pretty scary because he’s crazy. You never know what he might do and I really get the feeling that he doesn’t either. I never want to face a pitcher that just got out of anger management.
9. Jonathan Papelbon, Boston Red Sox: Pap is definitely a scary guy on the mound but he tries too hard. You can’t think about being intimidating to be truly intimidating. He has potential though, a mid 90’s fastball and those crazy eyes certainly don’t hurt. Papelbon will never be a top 5 intimidating pitcher material until he just relaxes and lets the intimidation ooze.
8. Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants: The Freak is intimidating because he’s not. He stands 5’10” on the mound but has a crazy wind up and blazing fastball. His reputation makes him even more scary. He’s the type of guy I’d love to have a drink with but definitely not step in against.
7. Manny Ramirez: Ok, so he’s not a pitcher and he’s technically not active either but tell me you wouldn’t be shaking in your spikes if Manny was pitching to you.
6. Jon Rauch, Toronto Blue Jays: This guy is 6’10” and covered in tattoos. He is scary. He’s got flames on one arm and some interlocking stuff on the other. He’s got the letter “I” on the back of his neck. That’s terrifying. I’m not sure why but it is.
5. Josh Beckett, Boston Red Sox: Beckett is mostly scary because he used to be scary. Back when he threw in the upper 90’s, he wasn’t afraid to put in the ear hole of a guy’s helmet if he felt like it. He’s in the 5 spot out of respect for that, and because he still has that mentality even if he can only touch 93 now a days.
4. Aroldis Chapman, Cincinnati Reds: He throws 105 mph. You try to hit that, let alone try to not get hit by it. I don’t even think I could see something moving that fast. Intimidating. Also, he’s got “105.1 MPH” tattooed on his biceps so you know he’s the man.
3. Marino Rivera, New York Yankees: Tell me your not intimidated when the greatest closer of all time comes jogging into the game with “Enter Sandman” blaring in front of 50,000 raucous fans in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the World Series. Tell me.
2. Brian Wilson, San Francisco Giants: Fear the Beard! Wilson sports that ridiculously long, shoe polish black, “magical” beard that no one is allowed to touch, an “I don’t give a damn” attitude, and a 98 mph fastball with movement. He is absolutely the man. Don’t believe me? Check out the Jim Rome interview. Or the George Lopez interview. Or what he said about Tony La Russa last year after the Cards manager got him fined $1000 because his cleats were too bright. Or the fact that he showed up for the bus to the airport for to go to Philly for last year’s NLCS with nothing but the clothes on his back, his hat, and his glove.
1. Kyle Farnsworth, Tampa Bay Rays: Farnsworth is consistently voted the toughest guy in the Majors by other players. He doesn’t talk to his teammates, he just listens to his iPod and does what he wants. He’s gotten in more brawls than I can count, and won all of them. He is the baseball equivalent of Chuck Norris, in Rec-Specs. You know he would kill you and just keep walking, he’s that tough. You can only criticize him from the other side of the TV. I’d face every other guy on this list 100 times before I’d want to see Farnsworth once. Scary man.
Did we miss anybody? Overrate anyone? Let us know. If you want to see more stuff like this or even some that’s completely different, check us out. Off The Bench, a mostly baseball blog, is located at maxfrankel.com. Stop by to see what we’ve got and learn a little about us.
