A recent player poll in Baseball America judged Chris Archer, the young ace of the Tampa Bay Rays, to have the best slider in the American League. Archer, a right-hander, has used the pitch to establish himself as an All-Star, and last month he fired a one-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts against the Houston Astros.
Watching that night at Minute Maid Park was a former pitcher whose slider was probably the best of his time among right-handers.
“That’s what they said,” the pitcher, J. R. Richard, said in a recent telephone interview. “But I looked at him as definitely having some good pitches.