Nice
See, Pop has de-emphasized his slider (16%) from his arsenal, and for good reason – he simply has no feel for the pitch right now. Overall, in a very small sample size, the results (6.7% whiff, .578 xwOBA) aren’t promising, and he’s leaving it over the plate (56.4% whiff) far too much. Now, this wasn’t particularly a problem last year, but, even then, he hasn’t gotten hitters to expand the zone against it as you’d hope for, which ought to beg the question; can a new slider be added to expand his arsenal.
Well, good thing we know one pitch that would work perfectly with a sinker. Yep, I’m talking about the good ol’ sweeper. If you have a sinker running into righties and a sweeper running away, all coming from the same grip, that is FAR too much deception for an opposing hitter to deal with. Wait, aren’t we describing Clay Holmes? I’m not saying that’s the most likely outcome for Pop, but with the proper tweaks, a high-end reliever outcome certainly should not be discounted at all. He may not pop at first, but Zach certainly ought to garner your attention moving forward. As they say, beauty comes in all shapes and sizes!