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Neither Alec Manoah nor his slider show any signs of stagnating in the second year.
With 15 starts in 2022, Manoah scored a 9-2 and 2.09 ERA, good for a third place in the MLS. Right-wing numbers have shown remarkably consistency since its bullish year. After serving only 35 rounds in the minors, he was called up in 2021 and established himself in the Toronto tournament, seemingly without much of an adjustment period.
After a solid rookie year in 2021, Manoah has been even better this season. Its slider is one of the main reasons for its dominance.
Kevin Souza / USA Today Sports
How and why did he find success so quickly? Maybe it’s his warm-up routine that includes Throw the football around On game days. The most likely reason? its scroll bar.
The Manoah’s sweeping slider has a great deal of movement on the side of the gauntlet that blocks the left and pins the right. The hits hit .174 against the field this year. It also has an inhalation rate of 31.1%.
according to Statistical data, the Manoah slider is averaging 15.6 inches of horizontal movement this season. When compared to an MLB slider thrown at similar speeds, this is 5.3 inches, or 52%, more movement than average. In his rookie season, Manoah’s slider averaged 15.5 inches of horizontal dropout, ranking 16th out of 370 eligible MLB slides.
By contrast, the Manoah’s 94-mph four-steel fastball averages 5.5 inches of horizontal movement, about 21% less than the average for similar MLB pitches. Manoah likes to play his four slider stitchers — combined, he throws them 67.6% of the time. Its slider comes at 81.2 mph. The change in velocity combined with a bad break can help explain why even when strikers dominate the pitch, they only have 0.257 slowdown and a 17.7% hit rate.
Rounding out his arsenal, both Manoah’s gravity and variation have an average amount of arm side movement.
Manoh is not afraid to be thrown inside; It’s one of the reasons why he had the most HBPs in the AL last year with a score of 16. He’s currently tied for most in the AL this year too with a six. Hitters do not necessarily indicate problems with control—his 5.1% gait rate ranks him at 88 percent of MLB shooters. Against the right racket, tend to open the outer half of the board by starting the back of the board with four inner stitches or a sinker, then serving a slider that falls from the outer edge of the strike area. Hitters may adapt to the indoor fast ball by stepping back off the board or by speeding up their barrel, which can make it difficult to stay on their non-quick pitches in the outside corner later in the board’s appearance. Just take a look at these two pitches from the same first half board appearance against White Sox first team captain José Abreu on June 2.
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Manoah vs Abreu: 4-Sim Fast Bowl, 0-0 Count
Manoah vs Abreu: Slider, 1-2 counts
That night, he went 7 2/3 runs in an 8-3 Blue Jays win. Three rounds, six hits, and one walk were allowed. Four of the five hits came across his slider.
Manoah has fared much better against right-handed hitters than left-handers, who hit him by 0.266 against him this season, compared to the 0.12 average allowed for right-handers. Opposing teams are beginning to take advantage of these divisions. The Yankees put five left-handed players in their squad in their victory over Manoah and the Jays on June 18. The problem mostly came from the four Manoah tailors, with lefties hitting 0.464 against the pitch this season. The Manoah slider is his way of neutralizing left-handed hitters, but it’s also a risky proposition, because there’s less room for error. Since Manoah’s slider refracts towards the left, they can easily trace its trajectory from his hand, attaching it to the top if left outside the board. When a slider starts in the strike zone and moves left to the left and then out of the zone, it can be a devastating move. So far, this has mostly been the case. The left hits .189 against the Manoah slider, while the right has an average of .167 when confronted.
The slider appeared while Manoh was still in college. He participated in the Cape Cod interseasonal baseball league at West Virginia University and was not satisfied with his changeover, he decided he needed to add a cracker ball to his arsenal. Manoah sharpened his fist by watching videos of Rob Friedman, aka Pitching Ninja, on YouTube.
Manouh knows he can count on his slider as a sweeping pitch, or for the moments when he needs to take a shot. He turns into him 40% of the time when he’s in the two-hit count, and 26.2% of the time in the three-ball count.
Toronto knows they can count on the Manoah slider, too. The young right player and his worst showing will be crucial for the Blue Jays if they are to live up to their high expectations pre-season and take a deep run into the post-season.
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