Jameson Taillon Has a New Pitch
Brad received a PSA in his chat yesterday that he then shared with us on our Slack channel regarding Jameson Taillon and his new slider:
Joey Boom Bats wasn’t lying! I mean, of course he wouldn’t lie about that. Who would lie about something that is so easily verifiable? Anyway, Taillon does in fact have a new slider and after dabbling with it a few times here and there in previous starts, he had it on full display this past Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals.
WARNING: We’re about to go GIF-wild!
He first dabbled with a couple in his May 11th start against the San Francisco Giants, but sites couldn’t even agree that they were sliders as Brooks (and other outlets) still had them as curves while we had them as sliders. He didn’t throw any the next start… or if he did, no sites were able to classify them as such. He threw five against the Reds on May 22nd, netting a couple strikes and a flyout, but it was clearly still a work in progress. He really only got on top of two of them, resulting in the one swinging strike and another that Eugenio Suarez laid off of for a ball.
The few against the Giants and Reds were essentially dress rehearsal for Sunday’s grand opening of the pitch. He threw 30 sliders against the Cardinals with tremendous results. They went 2-for-15 (both singles) with five strikeouts. He drew seven swings-and-misses and nine chases (one of which was a lucky infield single by Marcell Ozuna). Those numbers are elite. Of course, it’s a one game sample so let’s not freak out, but it’s very promising. Taillon also threw a much harder slider than we’d seen against the Giants and Reds. He averaged around 87 mph with the seven against them, but was up to 89.7 against St. Louis, including a couple at 92-93.
Here is a sampling of the slider’s excellence v. the Cards:
Taillon’s new slider is a weapon against righties as of now with only six of his 37 thrown this year coming against lefties (including a couple to Matt Carpenter shown above). As Joey Boom Bats suggested, it damn well might be a plus pitch right away. There is no particular path for pitch development.
Of course, even a guy’s best pitch isn’t the same every time out so we will likely see fluctuations with Taillon’s new toy. It’s an exciting development for the 26-year old righty. He might finally have a swing-and-miss monster to go with his groundball-heavy sinker/curve combo. I’d really love to see this pitch be something he can also backfoot on lefties and start finding more success against them. He has a heavy 279-point platoon split (.847 OPS v. LHB), so while the new slider could lower his .568 OPS against righties, it might not attack his biggest weakness.
PSA 2.0 – so does Nick Pivetta. He added a sinker/two seamer that moves very similarly to his change and has a 24% whiff per swing rate (only 11% whiff rate on all thrown, but sinkers are designed for weaker contact anyways).
Paul, this isn’t a new pitch:
https://www.dkpittsburghsports.com/2018/05/21/taillon-pirates-slider/
Sounds like Kershaw inspired him to bring back an old compliment to his arsenal.
Think we’re splitting hairs here re: “new”. It’s absolutely new to him as a major leaguer, which was the main point.
fair enough – have to wonder if this elevates him in future rankings. If he can keep the hard hit rate down, strike out more than 1 batter per 9, and get ground balls, then it’s hard to imagine how he won’t be a top 30-40 pitcher or better.
Or put it this way – replace “Michael Fulmer” with “Jameson Taillon” in your rankings and you’ll catch my drift 😉
because, honestly, the only splitting of hairs is how you and Nick keep justifying a ranking of Fulmer inside the top 30 when he really belongs somewhere between 40-60.
I know – rankings are reserved for the eye of the beholder, and you have the latitude to rank as you please – but unless Fulmer gets traded to NY, I just don’t see how he’s a superior option than Taillon (or a host of others for that matter)
that is nice. BTW is the slider really a plus pitch or was it maybe playing up because hitters were not prepared for it? if he did not throw it before or only occasionally hitters might not have considered the pitch and then could not adjust on the fly.
I’m not saying it is not good but we should wait for more outings as well as check the spin rate, break and other stuff before buying in.
BTW what is the difference between the new big thing “pitch design” and the old “learn a grip from a teammate and then try it in the bullpen”?
I’m not downplaying the efforts of modern player developement and they certainly got better but even 20 years ago there were stories of a guy learning a pitch from a teammate and then it just clicks and they have a new pitch. the process might be more efficient now though.
Kyle Crick, acquired in the offseason, has taught his slider grip to Nick Kingham. I wouldn’t be surprised if that also influenced Jamo.