Brock Holt throws the slowest called strike in MLB history, a breakdown

Aug 9, 2021 1.3M views 3:47

What Happened

During a blowout in 2021, Texas Rangers infielder Brock Holt took the mound for mop-up duty and lobbed an eephus-style 31 mph pitch that got rung up for a strike. According to Statcast tracking that dates back to 2008, it was the slowest called strike in recorded MLB history. Holt cruised through the inning with a steady diet of looping 30-something offerings, mixing in a few harder 68-83 mph pitches, and even threw out a runner trying to stretch a single into a double.

Why This Matters

Position players pitching became routine once MLB loosened the rules around using non-pitchers in lopsided games, and Holt turned a throwaway inning into something genuinely record-worthy. Throwing 31 mph for a strike sounds easy until you try it. The arc has to be perfect and the descent precise enough to clip the zone, which is why nobody had done it in the 13-plus seasons of pitch tracking. The bit works because hitters mostly cannot square up something that slow without overthinking their timing, and the umpire's willingness to ring it up sealed the moment. For Holt, a journeyman utility man whose biggest claim was a 2018 postseason cycle with Boston, this became the kind of lighthearted highlight that outlives most of his regular at-bats.

With 1.3M views, this breakdown ranks 219th of 1,583 in the Jomboy catalog, landing in the top 14% of all his breakdowns.

Key Moments

Who / What Is Involved

Players: Brock Holt.

Key Terms Mentioned

Manager Ejection Umpire Controversy Sticky Stuff

Brock Holt infielder for the texas

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brockholt's on the mount he's not a

pitcher

but he's been mastering his craft of

throwing the slow ball

and the catcher accidentally calls for

the fastball he says absolutely not i

want to throw the slow ball

and here it comes it's 31 miles per hour

and it's a called strike

and that has never happened before this

is the slowest called strike in the

history of mlb since 2008 when they

started keeping track and these guys

love it

oh man first we see a big win now we see

a total freak show on the mound another

one

30 miles per hour again hit right back

to him

picks it up doesn't even need his

fielders out says umpire and these guys

are looking at the scoreboard like look

how slow it was

look look how slow it was 31 miles per

hour they're just smiling

now chapman's going to step into the box

and he goes twinkle toes trying to reach

for it catcher pulls it back into the

zone umpire says

that's a pretty slow pitch catch you're

not really going to be able to fool me

with that no sense in framing it

next pitch the 1-0 another looper

hammered into left field

the outfielder cuts it off but chapman's

heading for second base why not it's a

free hit you might as well

try to take second gets thrown out

empire says out another great call brock

holt says hell yeah

hell yeah pitching is easy look how

locked in chapman's eyes are here

just big doesn't blink staring

still staring and then moment of contact

kind of crazy kind of crazy eyes look at

this moment of right

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nice swing next up old teammate kemp and

he goes 79 and this guy goes what

what you got 79 in the bag too not just

31

back to 30s back to 33 now the 2-0 count

33 again kemp wanted it does not swing

he's over three on the day

3-0 pitch what's he gonna go slow ball

or fastball fastball

68 right on the corner these guys love

it they're eating it up brock's like

that's right baby

i got that too i can throw it for a

strike

3-1 pitch what's he going to go with

fast again and the um says yeah i'm

going to call that strike because i kind

of

just want to get this over with it was

novel and fun at first and now it's just

kind of boring watching these slow

pitches

3-2 in play 83 miles per hour this time

a nice catch at the wall

and Brock Holt does it completes

the inning proving once again

you can get outs in mlb he shows the

umpires glove his hat says do you need

to check me for the sticky stuff

i know i look nasty out there um says no

dude you're all good i'm over the jokes

i just want to go home

it's been a boring game brock says thank

you to the away crowd

brag says thank you to the away crowd i

never put it together that

that's the away crowd that's weird

anyway

then they're in the dugout and he's like

give me that let me check this out and

the player behind him is also checking

out like look what he did

look yeah look what he was doing out

there

it's funny now Brock Holt sees and he's

going to get a kick out of as well he

says look at how he's doing man that's

awesome

then he's going to look back and he's

going to get into the scouting report

he's going to take it seriously like

okay how can i improve on this better

in all seriousness i do think it's

pretty hard to throw a 31 mile per hour

pitch for a strike i mean to have

control over it but that's slow you got

to get a lot of arc and you got to get

it to ploop

down perfectly the way you want it to

pretty hard it's kind of like that

slowest bicycle race that i learned

about on lizzie mcguire where it's like

you know precision

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