Like you, I bet that a splitter is what they'll try. Strider's pretty linear mechanically speaking and honestly, his arm action is what I'd describe as being a bit pushy. A backspin dominant pitcher like him is a bit of an awkward fit for a sweeper or a sinker. I wouldn't mind a gyro ball for him, to give him something else to throw in the zone when he falls behind, but he'd still be more or less a 2-pitch guy. A curveball is also a no-no mechanically speaking, it would be pretty difficult for him to get around on one I think. Bet you it's a splitter.
A splitter makes the most sense as it's the lowest hanging fruit. Though unlikely, the gyro + sweeper idea is interesting unless Strider loses some velocity. His slider is just so dominant now that there's no reason to tinker with it, but if he loses some velocity, it likely will regress, and the gyro + sweeper would make more sense. As for a sinker, I don't think he would have an easy time learning to throw one. His change now doesn't have any wake effects, and given his true spin in general, it might cause a similar issue that you mentioned with the cutter where the pitches blend. I could see a curveball being an option if he can spin it some. Ben Brewster had a video about a spike curve that he thinks is the easiest breaking ball to learn, so that feels like an option if needed. Regardless of what pitch it is, Spencer is so dominant as a two pitch guy; him adding another potential plus pitch is scary.
Splitter, Sweeper, Cutter, Sinker. Any of those provides an avenue of potential success. Only having two pitches has really held him back to breaking out and running away with being the best pitcher in the NL.
Yeah, he’s been really, really good with basically 2 pitches. I just wonder whether he’s a bit more susceptible to blow-ups and rough stretches like this (early last year for example). So it makes sense to have something in his back pocket. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him break it out this year.
I think it should absolutely be a splitter. Not sure it will be, but that seems like it would be the best addition by far, and could essentially replace his changeup. It also matches his pitching motion very well
I'm a new viewer who just found this channel and subscribed after this video. I love the analysis. I particularly enjoyed the analysis about the "cutter potentially bleeding into the 4-seamer" and instead of having 1 great fastball he could end up with 2 less effective fastballs. I don't think that's a risk Strider should take right now. His fastball is so great and almost everything he does is based off that. I will say talks of a "Gyro-ball" make me worry about potential injury. Every pitcher has a different body and different mechanics. They need to pay attention to how their body and arm react to certain movements. I would hate for Strider to become the next injured pitcher on the chopping block because he pays more attention to analytics than obvious signs his body is telling him that he shouldn't be doing certain things. There's too much of that in baseball nowadays. I want Strider to be a very healthy and active pitcher with a very long career. Not a guy that wins a Cy Young every few years but barely pitches at all in between due to injuries like deGrom and Strasburg did. To me the simplest way to do that on paper is to improve the changeup as much as possible. Make it look like a fastball and don't change the mechanics so the hitters can't tell the difference. Then when it moves to the plate instead of speeding like a Ferrari it comes in like a slow moving Mack truck and the hitters would be way ahead of it. Hopefully that would be accomplishable by a change in grip as opposed to a change in mechanics and it wouldn't alter any of his other pitches either. Guys like Tom Glavine and Johan Santana made entire careers out of doing that. Everyone has different hands and fingers though which means everyone has different grips. Hopefully Strider can maybe get some words of wisdom from some of the changeup experts like Glavine though and won't need to risk injuring himself or diminishing the effectiveness of his best pitch to add a solid 3rd pitch. In my view that would be evolving his changeup. He wouldn't even need to throw it that slow as hard as he throws if he can make the delivery look exactly like his fastball like other pitchers do. Even at 90mph Strider's changeup would be much slower than his fastball if he makes them look the same. I think that alone would be at least an average MLB pitch in terms of effectiveness for him. If he could drop that changeup down into the mid to high 80's with a 100mph 4-seamer that looks identical... Man. That would be devastating for any hitter geared up for the fastball. And if hitters stop respecting his fastball to go for the changeup we all know it's game over and Strider wins anyway. So that's what I would love to see that would both be effective and conserve Strider's long term health. Great video! Thanks!
He spoke at braves fest and said his body is not naturally able to throw the changeup effectively and he thinks it is about as good as it's going to get.
@@LetTheTideRoll19 That's interesting. Glavine always explained it very differently. What Glavine loved about his circle change is that he didn't have to change anything with his body at all. He just held the ball completely different and it looked the same to hitters but came in 10mph slower. I wish Strider could do something similar.
Important to note that when asked about his past season (and with the question sort of alluding to the difference between his peripherals and his actual ERA) he mentioned sequencing and execution as things he was working on. The sequencing aspect might lead to a sinker development, not sure though
Yeah, I always find sequencing and execution topics pretty ambiguous until we actually see if his BB rate goes down or if he changes approach in certain counts. Has a pitcher ever said he’s not working on execution? Or sequencing?
Another great video, Lance, thanks for making killer content. Totally agree with you - if he adds a splitter - he would be virtually untouchable. But how easy is it to learn and constantly control, especially for a guy who has never thrown it? I feel like his best bet would be to add the cutter to throw against lefties even if he loses some fastball shape since its already quite nasty
It’s a good point! He stresses execution a lot, so it’s clearly a priority for him. If he’s sees any fastball regression though, I think he’ll be forced to figure something else out. But for now, we’ll just enjoy him!
BABE WAKE UP, A SPENCER STRIDER BREAKDOWN JUST DROPPED FROM LANCE
Her: "he's probably thinking about other girls."
Him: "Which of the 4 pitches from Lance Bros' breakdown will Strider adopt?"
he threw a few curve balls against Matt Olsen in BP yesterday at spring training
Like you, I bet that a splitter is what they'll try. Strider's pretty linear mechanically speaking and honestly, his arm action is what I'd describe as being a bit pushy. A backspin dominant pitcher like him is a bit of an awkward fit for a sweeper or a sinker. I wouldn't mind a gyro ball for him, to give him something else to throw in the zone when he falls behind, but he'd still be more or less a 2-pitch guy.
A curveball is also a no-no mechanically speaking, it would be pretty difficult for him to get around on one I think. Bet you it's a splitter.
Yep yep, think I agree on all fronts 👍
It’ll be interesting to see what he does if there’s any fastball performance deterioration
A splitter makes the most sense as it's the lowest hanging fruit. Though unlikely, the gyro + sweeper idea is interesting unless Strider loses some velocity. His slider is just so dominant now that there's no reason to tinker with it, but if he loses some velocity, it likely will regress, and the gyro + sweeper would make more sense. As for a sinker, I don't think he would have an easy time learning to throw one. His change now doesn't have any wake effects, and given his true spin in general, it might cause a similar issue that you mentioned with the cutter where the pitches blend. I could see a curveball being an option if he can spin it some. Ben Brewster had a video about a spike curve that he thinks is the easiest breaking ball to learn, so that feels like an option if needed. Regardless of what pitch it is, Spencer is so dominant as a two pitch guy; him adding another potential plus pitch is scary.
Caused his current injury TJ soon
He was just throwing 2Seamers and Curves today in a live BP!!
there goes that man again
🫡🫡🫡
Another exception would be Bryce Miller.
Splitter, Sweeper, Cutter, Sinker. Any of those provides an avenue of potential success. Only having two pitches has really held him back to breaking out and running away with being the best pitcher in the NL.
Yeah, he’s been really, really good with basically 2 pitches. I just wonder whether he’s a bit more susceptible to blow-ups and rough stretches like this (early last year for example).
So it makes sense to have something in his back pocket. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him break it out this year.
I think it should absolutely be a splitter. Not sure it will be, but that seems like it would be the best addition by far, and could essentially replace his changeup. It also matches his pitching motion very well
Splitty. Dude's on a Smoltz career trajectory.
I'm a new viewer who just found this channel and subscribed after this video. I love the analysis. I particularly enjoyed the analysis about the "cutter potentially bleeding into the 4-seamer" and instead of having 1 great fastball he could end up with 2 less effective fastballs. I don't think that's a risk Strider should take right now. His fastball is so great and almost everything he does is based off that. I will say talks of a "Gyro-ball" make me worry about potential injury. Every pitcher has a different body and different mechanics. They need to pay attention to how their body and arm react to certain movements. I would hate for Strider to become the next injured pitcher on the chopping block because he pays more attention to analytics than obvious signs his body is telling him that he shouldn't be doing certain things. There's too much of that in baseball nowadays. I want Strider to be a very healthy and active pitcher with a very long career. Not a guy that wins a Cy Young every few years but barely pitches at all in between due to injuries like deGrom and Strasburg did. To me the simplest way to do that on paper is to improve the changeup as much as possible. Make it look like a fastball and don't change the mechanics so the hitters can't tell the difference. Then when it moves to the plate instead of speeding like a Ferrari it comes in like a slow moving Mack truck and the hitters would be way ahead of it. Hopefully that would be accomplishable by a change in grip as opposed to a change in mechanics and it wouldn't alter any of his other pitches either. Guys like Tom Glavine and Johan Santana made entire careers out of doing that. Everyone has different hands and fingers though which means everyone has different grips. Hopefully Strider can maybe get some words of wisdom from some of the changeup experts like Glavine though and won't need to risk injuring himself or diminishing the effectiveness of his best pitch to add a solid 3rd pitch. In my view that would be evolving his changeup. He wouldn't even need to throw it that slow as hard as he throws if he can make the delivery look exactly like his fastball like other pitchers do. Even at 90mph Strider's changeup would be much slower than his fastball if he makes them look the same. I think that alone would be at least an average MLB pitch in terms of effectiveness for him. If he could drop that changeup down into the mid to high 80's with a 100mph 4-seamer that looks identical... Man. That would be devastating for any hitter geared up for the fastball. And if hitters stop respecting his fastball to go for the changeup we all know it's game over and Strider wins anyway. So that's what I would love to see that would both be effective and conserve Strider's long term health.
Great video! Thanks!
He spoke at braves fest and said his body is not naturally able to throw the changeup effectively and he thinks it is about as good as it's going to get.
@@LetTheTideRoll19 That's interesting. Glavine always explained it very differently. What Glavine loved about his circle change is that he didn't have to change anything with his body at all. He just held the ball completely different and it looked the same to hitters but came in 10mph slower. I wish Strider could do something similar.
@@matthew01234 I think the only way someone with his mechanics could do it would be a splitter
Important to note that when asked about his past season (and with the question sort of alluding to the difference between his peripherals and his actual ERA) he mentioned sequencing and execution as things he was working on. The sequencing aspect might lead to a sinker development, not sure though
Yeah, I always find sequencing and execution topics pretty ambiguous until we actually see if his BB rate goes down or if he changes approach in certain counts.
Has a pitcher ever said he’s not working on execution? Or sequencing?
Knuckleball. That’s the answer.
YES
plot twist he adds nothing and he's trying to play the mental game with the rest of the league
Another great video, Lance, thanks for making killer content. Totally agree with you - if he adds a splitter - he would be virtually untouchable. But how easy is it to learn and constantly control, especially for a guy who has never thrown it? I feel like his best bet would be to add the cutter to throw against lefties even if he loses some fastball shape since its already quite nasty
It’s a good point! He stresses execution a lot, so it’s clearly a priority for him. If he’s sees any fastball regression though, I think he’ll be forced to figure something else out.
But for now, we’ll just enjoy him!
spencer slider
You forgot the MEATBALL that he throws exclusively to Bryce Harper
Harper is 3-15 with 1 homer off strider in his career lol
@@jeremiahjohnson7644 a significant home run.
buddy is def gonna pull up with a knuckleball
YES
What about an eephus pitch?
Bold strategy, Cotton
Strider with a split would be unfair
Do you think Ohtani's splitter is what gives Strider the idea? i feel like similar fast balls but I could be totally wrong.
Bit different there, Ohtani’s fastball doesn’t have the same ride, less efficient spin.