Gerrit Cole had a great outing yesterday in the Pittsburgh Pirates home opener, striking out eight over six innings while giving up three hits. After a somewhat-middling outing against the Reds, it was a welcome sign for Pirates fans. If you haven’t been watching Cole closely, you might make the assumption that Cole’s fastball was in play. And it was. but so was his not-so-secret weapon: his slider.
About a month ago I detailed all of the best pitches of the Pirates’ starting rotation, using such advanced metrics as O-Swing %, O-Contact %, SwStr %, and ground ball/fly ball rates.