Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
I think the slider is what damn near barbecued him in Tampa Bay.
I believe he's gotten away from it for self-preservation as much as anything. He just never learned to throw it in a way that doesn't put too much torque on the elbow so he appears to use it as a show-me pitch these days.
Can't argue too loudly against that given how close he was to out of baseball not too terribly long ago.
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I wouldn't want him to use it heavily, but a slider or curve or cutter would seem to help him a bit against lefties.
He actually has started to develop platoon splits the past few years because he has the best separation between fastball and changeup amongst starters in baseball (like 14-15 mph).
That would play well against the RH-dominant teams in KC's division (as long as he isn't pitching in a bad box that turns lazy warning track fly balls in any other park into 4-rows deep HRs to LF).