Major League Baseball

San Francisco Giants: A 21st century Tiant

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:44 p.m. ET

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Sports Illustrated

Staff ace Madison Bumgarner, who already delivered a championship, is coming off his best regular season showing to date, and while his pitching—and hitting—offer considerable entertainment value, that of rotation mate Johnny Cueto may surpass it. Not only did Cueto put up strong numbers (2.79 ERA, 2.95 FIP, 8.1 K/9 and 5.6 WAR) in the first season of his six-year, $130 million deal with San Francisco, the now-31-year-old righty continued to show off an amazing and amusing variety of ways to befuddle hitters: six different pitches and four deliveries designed to upset their timing. In 2015, Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan provided a taxonomy that included the Traditional, the Quick Pitch, the Rocking Chair and the Tiant, the last named for Cuban hurler Luis Tiant, who literally put a twist on pitching thanks to a variety of unconventional deliveries during his storied 19-year career (1964 to '82) with six different teams.

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