New York – Justin Verlander isn’t giving in on this.
“I don’t care what BrooksBaseball.net calls it,” he said.
BrooksBaseball.net, the pitch-tracking web site, is charting one of the pitches in Verlander’s repertoire as a cutter.
Verlander is steadfast on this — he’s not throwing a cutter. It’s a slider.
After his rough start against Cleveland on May 3, Verlander began tweaking the grip and delivery of his slider and found a different way to manipulate it. When he throws it with a little more velocity and elevates it, it acts more like a cut fastball.