The hot new pitch that's sweeping across the Majors

[Auggie]

mlb.com / April 19, 2023

What’s a “sweeper,” as you’ve certainly seen all over your television broadcasts this year? It’s a slider that’s specifically intended to get a great deal of horizontal movement, and it looks a whole lot like this beauty (video at link) from Shohei Ohtani, who is – to the greatest of all our surprises – absolutely fantastic at this, too.

It’s not that this is a pitch that just got invented in the last few years; certainly you can name pitchers from decades ago who threw a pitch like this, and maybe they even called it a sweeping slider, too. But it’s definitely a new trend, one that really came to the forefront in late 2021, when MLB.com’s Tom Tango and Driveline Baseball’s Dan Aucoin (now with the Phillies) started using the term. That same month, the Athletic’s Eno Sarris started writing about the “Dodgers Slider,” and later on, Lindsey Adler wrote about the Yankees using the “whirly,” pitches which are now considered to just be: sweepers.

So now it's a thing, and it’s got a lot to do with seam-shifted wake, if you want to get really deep about it – the science of how to use the orientation of the seams themselves to gain extra or unexpected movement. In large part, that’s why the trend has accelerated so quickly recently, because the shift of Statcast technology to Hawk-Eye in 2020 has really helped supercharge the ability to identify and teach this kind of movement.

So which teams do this the most? If we stick to “most sliders of all types with at least a foot of break,” then it’s the Rays (53%), followed by the Cubs, Padres, Mariners and Brewers. At the other end? The Rangers, Tigers and Guardians (5%). It's not the only thing the Rays stand out in -- their four-seamers have the most rise whether you include gravity or not, for example -- but it does tell you a lot about what they're up to.

Full, unedited article at the link, with video: https://www.mlb.com/news/sweeper-slider-latest-pitching-trend-explained

Bottom line IMO (from the article): It’s not as much about swing-and-miss rate as you might think. It's a whole lot more about getting a lot more weak contact.

[3Hotdogs]

1. --- way I figure it, the best pitch ever, was Satchel Page's "B" pitch.

Satchel, why do you call it the B pitch?

"Because it Be where I want it, when I want it an how I want it."

[marble falls]

2. Now if they'd only get the technology to stop putting commercials in the middle of an inning ...

... and get rid of the circus stunts going on off field during those commercials.

The pitching clock as means to "speed up the game" is a big joke too. It's the commercial breaks that slow down the game

Watching the games back in the day used be so fun and relaxing. Breaking up innings stalls out rallies and just breaks up the game. The last four hour game at Ranger's stadium just did it for me. The minor league games are as bad as the majors now.

I would go to industrial league games if they were still around. The "boys of summer" are long gone. Baseball is all business including with the players, something I always went to a game to get away from.

I don't think I could name a player today past one or two, like Shohei Ohtani. I can still name a hundred players from the 50s thru 70s Cleveland teams and its rivals. I used to live in Mesa and watched the Cubs in spring training and the Giants farm team in Phoenix in the 80s and 90s. Those were the days. And they're gone forever. Enjoyed watching the UT ball teams, especially the women's fast pitch underhand team. There was pitcher Kat i forget her last name who was a real marvel in the 90s.

Sorry if I got off your topic, but I need to get my cane and shake it at the kids playing catch on the lawn. Or would if kids still tossed the old bean around these days.

[underpants]

4. They have commercials IN the middle of innings?

I had no idea. I caught a little bit of a couple games last weekend. I didn’t notice the commercials.

[marble falls]

5. They broke up the innings at the Ranger game to play some stupid game to make a hamburger out ...

... component shaped pillows and other stupid stunts and spent what seemed like over ten minutes between innings, playing more stupid stunts. I can't believe it was for anything else but commercial breaks. This was a televised game in Austin.

I like the old days when the announcers and color commentators fit a commercial around the action of the game with a station break between innings.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Games Are Averaging 30 Fewer Minutes

The number of commercials is the same.
Logic dictates that the pitch clock is having the intended effect.
There have been two 9 inning games in under 2 hours this year.
The last season with a sub 2 hour 9 inning game was 1993.

[gibraltar72]

3. Not over the top

but kinda sidearm looked like it was headed at batter then hellacious break. If he leans bac just a little he can't get any good part of bat on that ball.