Early Season Pitch Tracking Notes — Slider Tinkering

Jason Adam found a slider, and Shawn Alexander is trying not to lose one.

This early in the baseball season, it’s still foolish to find much meaning in results, be that statistics or precise pitch measurements. But generally speaking we can look at the pitch tracking data and see what’s new — what are pitchers trying to do in 2024?

Last week we looked at Aaron Civale, Tyler Alexander, and Garrett Cleavinger had all added sweepers to their repertoire. Next up is the pitchers who are tinkering with their sliders in other non-sweeper ways.

I like to use Texas Leaguers to glance over pitch shapes. Measurements are presented in comparison to a theoretically “straight” pitch, with the effects of gravity not included. They don’t match what you’ll see on Baseball Savant or from Pitch Info for “reasons,” but it’s all from the same base Hawkeye data.

Jason Adam

When the Cubs released Jason Adam he has a good fastball, a great changeup, a slider that he didn’t have much confidence in, and trouble throwing strikes. The Rays tweaked a little more sweep into his slider, told him all his stuff was good, and that he should throw it for strikes. He responded with a dominant 2022 season (1.56 ERA/2.86 FIP/3.17 xFIP).

Over the following offseason he lost the feel on that new slider, and it started sweeping on him more. So the Rays told him to lean into that, and in 2023 he ended up with one of the more extreme horizontal sweepers in baseball.

Adam may not have always known exactly where his new sweeper was going in 2023, and a sweeper this big isn’t the ideal pitch for all situations and all batters, but still, this is movement pitchers generally look for, not fight against.

Which is why it’s exciting to see that in 2024 Jason Adam is still throwing his big sweeper, but he’s also throwing a completely new, mid-80s gyro slider (which you’ll see right beneath the origin point on this graph).

Texas Leaguers

Adam has now thrown seven gyro sliders on the season, with five of them to lefties. Cory Seager almost squared one that stayed up, but in general it’s been a successful pitch. This whiff to Kevin Kiermaier gives a good example of how and where Adam and the Rays likely hope to use the new slider — low and in to lefties, falling off the table beneath their bats.

But it can be mixed in to righties as well. Here’s a strike to Marcus Semien, who has an exceptional batting eye. He lets this one go because, if it were a sweeper, it would be a foot off the plate.

But it’s not.

Shawn Armstrong

Shawn Armstrong first pitched for the Rays briefly in 2021, before joining the team more permanently in 2022 after a brief stint in Miami. We interviewed Armstrong then and he talked about how the Rays taught him to add a sinker to pair with his four-seam and cutter, and how he’d like to add back in his “outlier” slider but needed to find consistency with it before it was usable.

That all came together for Armstrong in 2023 when he used all four pitches to post a 1.28 ERA (2.54 FIP/3.82 xFIP) over 52 innings, excelling in both high-leverage long relief and in one-inning appearances. Here’s his pitch chart from one of those three-inning outings.

Texas Leaguers

With the three good, distinct fastballs, he’s a high-quality strike thrower. But sometimes strike-throwers give up runs even when they pitch well. When Armstrong has his slider working, he’s able to more completely dominate hitters, putting them into swing mode with his fastballs and then playing that against his slider.

But so far this season, the slider hasn’t really been there for him.

The two he threw on opening day didn’t move right, not having the downward bite we’re used to seeing from the pitch.

Texas Leagers

And he’s only thrown once since then.

Part of that may have been that breaking balls behave badly in the thin Coors air, but right now I’m on Armstrong slider watch. He’ll be an important part of this Rays bullpen with or without a consistent slider, but the 2023-style dominant form is more likely to come when he’s confidently mixing that pitch in with the hard stuff.