There were conflicting feelings within the Detroit fan community when Jack Flaherty signed. Many thought the money could have been better used elsewhere, and the Tigers had younger choices. a pitcher who walks too many batters, is frequently hurt, and hasn’t been able to return to his former St. Louis form. Thus far.
In recent years, assistant pitching coach Robin Lund and pitching coach Chris Fetter have worked on a number of projects. Their past performance is quite convincing. They haven’t, however, worked on a project with the same level of attention or expense as Flaherty. Fixing a past top-five finisher in the Cy Young voting who is unable to remain healthy and find the zone on a regular basis is a major issue.
His slider this season (left) has been positioned somewhat better, as the image above illustrates, which has resulted in weaker contact because it isn’t capturing as much of the plate.
Batters slugged.558 and hit.339 off of his slider in the previous season. Batters are only hitting.214 against the pitch this season, with a.174 slugging percentage. More pitches from Flaherty (177) have been seen in the bottom right corner of the zone (to a righty) than any other location. There, he has a 56% strikeout rate and a 65% whiff rate.
