Swing and miss sliders

The 2022 MLB Opening day is just around the corner. These days, I have watched several spring training games. And I saw some pitchers who frequently used sliders in a game and those sliders generated swings and misses. Additionally, I listened to a podcast show and a pitcher was interviewed. That pitcher told the host that his slider is not a swing and miss slider.

After listening to the podcast show, I went to check on the statcast website to see which pitchers threw sliders that generated a lot of swings and misses in 2021.

Three-time Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw decided to return to the Dodgers and he signed a 1-year deal. Last season, the number 22 made 22 starts and he posted a 3.55 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP over 121.2 innings. With fastball velocity drop, Kershaw used his slider 47.6% of the time in 2021 and he generated 238 swings and misses. Average spin rate of Kershaw’s slider was over 2600 rpm last season. Opponents only hit .198 against his slider.
Robbie Ray finished the 2021 season with a 2.84 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP. He wasn’t selected to the mid-summer classic, however, he won the AL Cy Young award. In the 2021 season, Ray used his slider 30.8% of the time and he generated 237 swings and misses. It’s very difficult to hit well against Ray’s slider since opponents hit only .173. Patrick Corbin was not dominant over the last 2 seasons. He had a 4.66 ERA and a 1.57 WHIP in 2020. Last year, he finished the season with a 5.82 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP. Nonetheless, there’s still something positive. His slider is still pretty good. In 2020, opponents only hit .198 against Corbin’s slider. Last year, Patrick Corbin used his slider to create 222 swings and misses and batting average against his slider was .211. In addition, Dylan Cease also generated 200+ swings and misses via his slider last year. Cease tossed a career-high 165.2 innings in 2021 and he finished the season with a 3.91 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP. Average spin rate of his slider was over 2800 rpm last year. Back in 2019, his slider was spinning at a rate of 2622 rpm, on average. Finally, Jon Gray generated 183 swings and misses via his slider in 2021. Moreover, JT Brubaker and Joe Musgrove each created 160+ swings and misses by throwing sliders. As we can see, three southpaws each used sliders to generate more than 200 swings and misses in the 2021 season. Are we going to see these three pitchers at the top of the chart again? Meanwhile, Dylan Cease effectively used his high-spin slider last year and opponents only hit .176. Is his slider going to spin more this season? Jon Gray signed a 4-year contract with the Rangers. It will be interesting to see his pitching performance after leaving Coors Field. Opponents only hit .156 against Gray’s slider last year, will this number go down in 2022?