"When Strider returned from injury last year, my amateur take on his struggles early was that he was struggling to stay mechanically consistent after taking a break between innings. Then, when things fell apart for him later in the year after his really nice run of starts, it was the slider mechanics (and resulting command) that did him in."
"So, the good news, if you care at all about my divinations into a guy's mechanics in Spring Training, is that Strider looked much better for big chunks of this outing. There seemed to be a concerted effort to 'slow down,' which I saw both in that he was 'pulling' his four-seamer a lot (later release) and that everything was definitely not max effort."
"When he struck out the side in the third, it was very vintage Strider - Logan Davidson went down on a 1-2 well-located slider below the zone, Chandler Simpson swung through a zone curveball, and Gavin Lux got eaten alive on an above-the-zone fastball."
Spencer Strider pitched four innings with one walk and five strikeouts in a Spring Training game against the Rays. After returning from injury last year, Strider struggled with mechanical consistency between innings and slider command. In his first two Spring Training outings this year, these same issues persisted. However, in this outing, Strider showed significant improvement by deliberately slowing down his delivery, evidenced by later fastball releases and reduced effort levels. He worked effectively with his fastball early in the game and progressively dominated opposing hitters in later innings, striking out the side in the third with well-located pitches. While facing relatively weak competition, Strider's performance suggested meaningful progress in addressing his mechanical concerns.
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