Why the SWEEPER Is Taking Over MLB | Baseball Bits

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Sweeper. Sweeper. Sweeper. Turn on any MLB broadcast, and you’ll probably hear that word dropped at least once. What is a sweeper? Well, it’s a variation of a slider that is now its own separate new pitch type. The truth is, pitchers like Dave Stieb and Sergio Romo have always thrown what we now consider to be sweepers, the name just hadn’t stuck yet.

But this episode of Baseball Bits, a Foolish Baseball production, is much more than a simple sweeper explainer. Because to understand the rise of the sweeper, we must also understand the history of pitch tracking. The pitch tracking era began in 2008, continued with Trackman Statcast, and is now handled by Statcast Hawkeye. Hawk-eye in particular is key to to this story, as it lead to confirmation of the seam shifted wake effect. Seam-shifted wake is fundamental to understanding the sweeper grip and sweeper seam orientation.

Some pitchers who have popularized the pitch include Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, Clay Holmes, Michael King, Mitch Keller, Yu Darvish, and Shohei Ohtani. The Shohei Ohtani Sweeper vs Mike Trout certainly stands out among all sweeper moments. Everyone was tuning in to the Ohtani vs Trout World Baseball Classic matchup. I hope you’ll enjoy the video!

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Alan Nathan on Freddy Garcia’s Splitter: http://baseball.physics.illinois.edu/Garcia1.html
Seam-Shifted Wake Zoom: https://baseballaero.com/2020/11/16/seam-shifted-wake-zoom/
Not Just About Magnus Anymore: https://www.baseballprospectus.com/news/article/62912/not-just-about-magnus-anymore/
Darvish on Sweeper: https://sports.yahoo.com/hes-throwing-a-what-the-sweeper-is-mlb-latest-pitching-weapon-dodgers-yankees-220657765.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACegOYVXIjrHadSxXeGjBTz7NQIhsBkBiPtZz6JwZ20wfMxjUSgaTv_AndjLpSyuBKPxt3w1TeasdoOcm6_iSpb6aRiR9e5DHCl3h6gAe4x5QpoA52IiQLKJbtQrlhT73obFV_9Rr1srPzmJqp4G31b2S5BBoa2pVVlMeotEnl33
The Sweeper Has Problems: https://theathletic.com/4410264/2023/04/18/sweeper-pitch-problems-fixes/


Soundtrack by William Kage: https://williamkage.com/