Mike Burrows’ Slider is Showing Good Spin Early in Camp

It’s always a good sign to see any prospect, let alone one of your best, continually try to evolve their game.

 Prospects can put themselves in a great position to succeed at the highest level by always approaching things with a mindset of doing whatever needs to be done to get better, and always keeping an open mind.

After reaching Triple-A last season, and then getting added to the 40-man roster, right-handed pitcher Mike Burrows is knocking right on the door of making his Major League debut. With how he was pitching in 2022, you could have made a case that if not for his late season injury, he could have pitched in Pittsburgh at some point before the end of the year.

Regardless of last year’s finish, Burrows is still at work looking to improve his game as he gets ready for the 2023 season. He really came along with his changeup last year, making him more than just a two-pitch pitcher, but he wasn’t done adding to his arsenal. He showed a new-look slider in camp, giving him another breaking pitch to show hitters to keep them off-balanced.

The pitch itself doesn’t have to be great overall, but if he can throw it enough – especially for strikes – that should help the rest of his pitches play up even further.

Spring is a great time to work at these things, and slowly Burrows has been mixing in the pitch, throwing it a total of four times in each game he has played in this spring going into his final outing on Tuesday.

In the first game, he didn’t locate the pitch well, throwing all four for balls. He struggled to keep the pitch down, where it’s going to have the most effectiveness, and at first glance there isn’t much movement.

The spin rate on the pitch is good, which shouldn’t be a surprise for Burrows, who always has strong metrics in that regard with his other offerings. You would like to see more movement, but maybe something not completely surprising for the first few times throwing it live in a game situation.

We saw a lot more life in his second outing, even getting a swing and miss on the pitch. There was a little more spin on it and had slightly better movement both vertically and horizontally.

Wasn’t much, but just enough to get a whiff but also to visually look like more that you would expect of a slider.

Mike Burrows slider alert! Statcast toyed around with a couple of pitches yesterday, originally calling a changeup a slider as well. They've fixed that, and have him throwing 4 total, here's video of each. #Pirates @pirateprospects pic.twitter.com/V6cAQPYPen

— Anthony Murphy (@__Murphy88) March 8, 2023

He was able to keep all four of the sliders he threw around the knees, although ideally, you’d like the pitch farther away to try to get the hitters reaching for it.

Ji-Hwan Bae makes a nice diving stop to get to a grounder off one of them, but can’t finish the play, allowing a runner to score. Had he completed the play, it would have been a whiff, two groundouts and a foul ball allowed that day with the slider.

For Burrows, the slider never really has to be one of his better pitchers, he just has to show it enough to create an extra look for hitters.

There had been talk about Burrows eventually becoming a reliever, due to his great fastball and curveball, without much after that. If the slider continues to progress, he will have not only added one but two pitches, only furthering his position as a legitimate starting pitcher.

He has some of the highest upside when it comes to starting pitchers in the upper levels for the Pirates, and this could help his floor continue to climb as well.

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