STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- If it seems like I just wrote about how effective Kyle Crick's slider was, well, it was because I did just write that. Things can change quickly in baseball, and this right-hander's go-to out pitch is the latest offering to prove this theorem.
What, if anything, has changed to provoke Crick's bread-and-butter to turn from a deliciously snappy missile into something encrusted with hittable mold?
Well, we can start with the fact that hitters have not been tempted by the pitch:
That's quite the steady decline, and it has been happening for some time now, even when Crick's slider was a bit sturdier.
The slider is the pitch du jour, not only among the Pirates, but around the entirety of baseball. Some can throw it anywhere at any time -- in the zone, out of the zone, it may not matter as much for one hurler as it will for the next. Francisco Liriano, for example, has a slider that has to miss the zone to be effective. Crick has not had that problem, at least not this year. His in-zone swing-and-miss rate of 24.5 percent represents a considerable bump over the MLB average of 19.6 percent.
Maybe we're making too much out of the slider. After all, the slugging percentage against the pitch stayed within reason in June, to the tune of a .273 mark.
But here's why an effective slider is so important to him. From opening day through May, Crick threw the pitch for a strike (called or swinging) 34 percent of the time. It was put in play only 10 times during this time frame, for one sole hit. However, from June 1 through today Crick is getting just a 28.1 percent strike rate on the pitch, with 19 balls in play, five of them falling for hits and four of those five going for extra bases.
All of that might not seem like it's important, but here's the showstopper: On the sliders that Crick has thrown for a ball since June 1, he has followed those pitches with a fastball that has lost its way. In fact, it's been a pretty rough pitch for him all year, with a .456 xwOBA in May and a .430 mark in June.
So, the preceding 350-some odd words has led us to this question: What caused the slider to lose that extra bit of zest that made it so appetizing?
I'm not entirely sure, to be quite frank with you. But I do know that something is going on, if only by looking at the changes in Crick's release points for the pitch:
On the surface, the release point data looks tighter since June, which would suggest a certain level of consistency in delivery. But keeping a tighter distribution of spots where he lets it go can make all the difference in how much it bites. This could explain why Crick has come into the zone with the slider at 39.1 percent since June, up from 32.1 percent prior.
I wrote a few weeks ago that Kyle Crick's slider could save him. It will have to. In 13 appearances after the calendar turned to June, Crick has allowed 31 baserunners and eight runs in 13 innings pitched, including a stunning 16 walks.
In that time, the slider -- along with the rest of his offerings, to be fair -- has raised serious questions about his ability to set the table for Felipe Vazquez on a regular basis.
MORE MOUND VISIT
July 11: Frazier's back, maybe
July 9: Myth-busting the first half
July 8: A four-seam heavy first half
July 5: Dickerson feasts on fastballs
