Yahoo Sports · Apr 20, 2022
He's throwing a what? The 'sweeper' is MLB's latest pitching weapon
Tune into baseball for long enough in 2022 and you’re almost assured to come across an unfamiliar term. The “sweeper” is the newest weapon being deployed against MLB hitters.
It is revitalizing the repertoires of some prominent pitchers and could have, um, sweeping implications for the seasons of the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees — two of the franchises most invested in it.
But what is a sweeper, exactly?
It’s a variation of breaking ball distinguished by horizontal movement — more across than up and down. Sweepers are essentially a subset of sliders, an endpoint on a spectrum that includes traditional sliders in the middle and hard, darting cutters on the other end.