That's a great question. The slider was the only one he had even a modicum of success with this year -- but it's also the only one he threw more than a handful of times on the season so hard to tell. He really had almost no success with his curve, and not just success against batters with it. None of the curves he threw this year broke at all, so whatever grip he tried he was getting much effective spin. You'd think with his fastball the best thing to pair it with would be something that broke down in the zone. But possibly the direction he'll take is to pair a four-seam and two-seam sinker off each other and then have the slider as a pitch that moves laterally to work in between the two? We'll see!
Great read. Any secondaries from his 2019 arsenal that had even an ounce of potential?
That's a great question. The slider was the only one he had even a modicum of success with this year -- but it's also the only one he threw more than a handful of times on the season so hard to tell. He really had almost no success with his curve, and not just success against batters with it. None of the curves he threw this year broke at all, so whatever grip he tried he was getting much effective spin. You'd think with his fastball the best thing to pair it with would be something that broke down in the zone. But possibly the direction he'll take is to pair a four-seam and two-seam sinker off each other and then have the slider as a pitch that moves laterally to work in between the two? We'll see!