Best Slider in Baseball? Cade Povich Ditched his Cutter for Sweepers

Anthony Banda, Max Meyer, Cade Povich

• Dodgers Anthony Banda has one of the best sliders in baseball since July 1. The pitch has a 28% swinging-strike rate (16% is average), second to only Andrew Chafin in that period (min 100 thrown). This slider is a new pitch for Banda. He only started throwing it >15% to righties in July, using it more as a peripheral weapon prior with a harder lean on his changeup. It’s also a new slider compared to last season. It’s 86 mph with -1” vertical break and 8” sweep (FanGraphs Stuff+ of 111). It was 86 mph with 0” vertical break and 1” sweep last season (FanGraphs Stuff+ of 95). The Dodgers look like they flipped him to a spiked sweeper grip to create the new shape (see images below).

  • I enjoy looking at the Dodgers’ peripheral pen arms because they usually improve or change quickly. They’ve hit a stellar outcome with Banda’s slider here. 💫

• Orioles Cade Povich has ditched his cutter in August. This was a pitch he threw ~12% in a variety of situations to righties. The pitch was mostly grabbing strikes on the outer-third or working inside to righties. A few barrels on the pitch have scared him and the org off it. To replace the usage, we’ve seen his sweeper usage jump up to 16% with better small-sample results on the contact quality side of things. 🤷‍♂️

  • My half-baked idea right now is that to succeed as a lefty without average or better stuff (Povich) you have to have a) notable deception that’s held strong results through the minors or b) good to great command. Ideally you have both. Povich is more a than b to me. Right now we’re seeing his vulnerability without “b.” He’s more of a put-everything-middle guy rather than one that can pitch to edges. That makes his start-to-start volatility high. The weirder part is that his best pitch is his fastball that he’s only throwing ~40% (because of it’s low Stuff+). His curveball looks the best, so I guess I understand pushing the oppo-handed sweeper usage up for now given the “throw “for the pitch is likely similar.

• Marlins Max Meyer has an 8.10 ERA with a 6.86 FIP in 5 starts since being recalled. He’s struggling bad versus either handedness of hitter. His fastball is the main concern. It has a 2% swinging strike rate versus lefties and 6% versus righties (we’re looking for 12%). I’m perplexed by what he’s doing with the pitch against left-handed hitters. His location in both two-strike and non-two-strike situations is middle of the plate. I’d imagine some finite control here to the inner third would help? Or try to elevate with two strikes? Anything other than middle? I get the simplicity of his approach. The cut fastball works to hide the slider which has been great almost every time he steps on a mound. Maybe he should just use the slider as his primary pitch? Or cut the fastball below 40% and see if the walks trend any lower. I’ll admit I’m a bit lost with what to do here. It feels obvious to try out some location diversity and then move further down the list of tweaks. 🐟