I tried for years to learn a slider, I never could do it. I tried as hard as I could and I just couldn’t do it. Instead threw breaking balls from different arm angles and release points at different speeds. Tell me something, which pitch puts more physical stress on your arm? I really don’t know, but I’ve always heard hard sliders are a higher health risk pitch, but I still don’t know. Gil Patterson (MLB pitching coach for the Blue Jays) told me he heard sliders were rougher on your arm but he even didn’t know for sure. What’s your opinion? Great video as always!
Assuming you can throw either one for a strike I think it depends on it you need a K or need a ground ball/fly ball out. Because if I'm throwing my slider well mixed with my fastball it gets put into play because the slider stays in the plane of the bat for RH hitters against RHP, so it's hard to get a swing and miss. But if you have a bad infield who isn't making plays they should be making you kind of have to get the outs on your own so a curve is better I think.
I hate to break this to you: if your slider isn't getting swings and misses, its because its not very good - has little to do with it being on the plane of the bat. MLB pitchers get tons of whiffs on sliders. And this is the very trap I'm talking about NOT falling into - what so many pitchers end up with is two very below-average breaking balls instead of one good one.
@@DanBlewett I get that it. But a slider that travels down and diagonal across the plate is in the plane most of the time, as the swing from batters is not level but dips, not as much as a golf swing but it doesn't really go level either. Anyway that's what I noticed and obviously not a large sample size since I don't play a ton.
The curve better opportunity to hit, the slider if you’ve got a good control it’s a deadly weapon a seasoned hitter should be able to identify the curve and its hang time. But I never made it out of highschool ball someone else might have better input
Which pitch put more physical stress on your arm and elbow? I ask because I never could figure out how to throw a slider and wanted to, but despite years of trying, I gave up. I made up for it in other way, but always wanted to know. A former MLB coach I knew didn’t even know the answer. I heard they can be damaging to the arm when thrown too frequently, but those were just rumors. Personally, when thrown correctly and perfectly, the curveball actually put the least amount of stress on my arm and gave me the opportunity to pitch more. The slider has always been this elusive weapon I so desperately wanted but I guess wasn’t in the cards.
