Just a couple of days ago, we reviewed some pitchers who used their four-seamers to generate a lot of strikeouts. Certainly, their four-seamers are nightmares of many MLB hitters. This time, let’s take a look at another pitch type.
Slider is commonly used in the majors and several pitchers throw sliders that cause many troubles for MLB hitters. To see which pitchers had generated a lot of strikeouts via his slider, again, I decided to check on the statcast website.
According to the statcast website, slider, sweeper and slurve are included in the slider group. So, let’s now see which pitchers had frequently thrown sliders that punched out hitters.
Clayton Kershaw was selected to the 2025 All-Star game as “Legend Pick.” Without a doubt, he’s a legend and recently, he joined the elite 3000 strikeout club. Kershaw surely can throw a lot of strikeouts. However, at the beginning of his career, he didn’t really throw sliders. Kershaw made his MLB debut in 2008. In the first 2 seasons of his career, his slider usage was below 10%. Nonetheless, in 2010, his slider usage increased to 20+% and gradually, his slider has become one of the toughest pitches to hit. From 2008 to 2024, Kershaw used his slider to strike out 1200+ batters.
Well, Chris Sale is now on the IL. Nevertheless, when he’s healthy, he’s certainly a tough pitcher to face. In particular, his slider is truly hard to hit. Sale made his MLB debut in 2010. So far in his career, Sale only used his slider less than 20% of the time in 2014 and 2015. From 2010 to 2024, Sale’s sliders generated 1100+ strikeouts.
In addition, Patrick Corbin made it into the big leagues in 2012. So far in his career, he already struck out 1800+ batters. From 2012 to 2024, he struck out 1100+ batters via his slider.
Moreover, Francisco Liriano played in the majors from 2005 to 2019. In his career, he threw 1815 strikeouts over 1813.2 innings. Basically, he threw a strikeout per inning. Slider is certainly an important pitch for Liriano. From 2008 to 2019, his slider usage was never below 20% in a single season. In his career, he used his slider to generate 1098 strikeouts.
Finally, we see a right-handed pitcher on the leaderboard. Ervin Santana pitched in the majors from 2005 to 2021. Well, he didn’t pitch in 2020. But it’s surely not easy to pitch 16 seasons in the majors. In his career, he had 1978 strikeouts. From 2008 to 2021, 1000+ strikeouts came from his slider. In those 13 seasons, he never finished a season with slider usage below 30%.
Looking at those pitchers who had thrown a lot of strikeouts via slider, interestingly, most of them are southpaws. It’s surely entertaining to watch those pitchers’ sliders and see batters’ reactions to those sliders. Well, Francisco Liriano and Ervin Santana have already retired. Nonetheless, we can keep watching 3 other pitchers’ sliders. In particular, Clayton Kershaw and Chris Sale are 2 Cy Young award winners. Their sliders are truly amazing.
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