Athletics Nation · Jul 7, 2016
The A's have the second worst slider in baseball
Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY SportsThat's not ideal.
Per FanGraphs pitch values, the Oakland A's have the second worst slider in baseball, behind only the ever so sad Padres. Thank heavens for the Padres.
This is a simultaneous contradiction of unsurprising and surprising. The A's are terrible and for months, started Eric Surkamp every fifth day. Of course their sliders are terrible. But if I told you back in March that the A's, a team that has featured baller sliders like Sonny Gray's and Chris Bassitt's, would be at nearly their worst when throwing those pitches, it wouldn't make a lot of sense.