When Carlos Rodón returns to the mound tonight — the 30-year-old New York Yankees southpaw has been out all season with forearm and again points — he’ll be doing so with one in all baseball’s best-known sliders. Long his signature pitch, it has contributed closely to his success, which features a 2.67 ERA, a 2.42 FIP, and a 12.23 Ok/9 charge between the 2021 and ’22 campaigns. As far again as 2016, former FanGraphs columnist (and now Tampa Bay Rays analyst) Jeff Sullivan in contrast Rodón’s slider to the one thrown by future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw.
Harkening again to my Learning and Developing a Pitch collection, which has been on hiatus since final July, I just lately requested Rodón for the story behind his slider.
———
Carlos Rodón: “The slider I throw now is identical one I threw in faculty. Before I bought to [North Carolina State University], it was extra of a slurve. My pitching coach in faculty was Tom Holliday, and he thought that I ought to throw a more durable breaking ball versus one which was extra curvish/slurvish. He stated, ‘Let’s attempt to make this nearer to a real slider,’ confirmed me a grip, then stated, ‘I want you to throw this as hard as you can.’ I did, and from there it didn’t take very lengthy to grow to be the breaking ball I’ve now. It fell into my arsenal fairly simply.
“The grip isn’t a standard slider grip. The tracks of the ball, above the horseshoe — each horseshoes — such as you’re throwing a two-seamer… you spin it such as you’re going straight perpendicular throughout [the seams]. You’re crossing them, after which my leverage is on that subsequent horseshoe. The leverage is with my center finger, and whereas that’s conventional, the grip itself is form of unorthodox. It’s not like I’m on only one seam. It’s laborious to clarify, however I’m form of above it.
“You hear guys discuss throwing it like a soccer, however I really hold that fastball-like orientation in my hand, after which all of it occurs upon launch. When I come by way of the supply, I’m pondering the underside a part of my hand goes hit my leg, hit my proper thigh.
“[The movement profile] is round eight horizontal, and vertical it’s on the zero line or simply under. I feel the most important factor after I throw it’s my sightline. I wish to tunnel it with my fastball. My tunnel is like outer third. That’s the place I wish to begin the pitch, and clearly it’s not going to finish up there due to the horizontal break and, in fact, gravity. So I do know the place I wish to begin it, after which gravity and physics are going to take management of the remainder.
“There are variations to my slider. I can get 12–13 horizontal, or I can add depth and make it extra of a downer, getting extra destructive vert out of it and getting under the zero line. It’s mainly about hand manipulation. With the baseline slider I throw, I’m principally behind the pitch with some gyro. If I need extra horizontal, I begin pondering a little bit extra to the aspect of the ball upon launch. If I need extra downward, it’s extra like I’m throwing it virtually like a cutter. It’s extra fastball hand place, and I’m going extra by way of it.
“When I throw a foul slider… the most important miss is often after I hit a righty within the foot. I’ll pull it, and it is going to be brief; it is going to be a 58-foot breaking ball as a substitute of creating it to the plate. I feel one of the best ways for me to repair the miss is the sightline I discussed. I’ve to decide to driving that pitch to its start line. Basically, I can’t take into consideration the place it’s going to finish up. I’ve to decide to the place I’m going to start out it. It’s principally a matter of focus.
“There are times where… we talk about overthrowing. I overcook the pitch, trying to do too much with it. I want to throw it hard, but you also don’t want to overthrow it, because that takes away from the profile of the pitch. I have a pretty good one, so I don’t want to get away from what makes it good.”
Content Source: blogs.fangraphs.com