RotoHardball's Todd McCacken looks at Chris Sale

Todd McCacken:

… As you can see, Sale doesn’t rely on his four seamer nearly as much (he cut its usage nearly in half), and become much more efficient at commanding it as well as his slider. Changes to pitch frequency and release point helped him regain feel for all of his pitches, and perhaps most importantly, helped his changeup become much more effective (doubling his swing and miss rate on the pitch to 40% against RHB).

To add fuel to the fire, and likely cementing the White Sox’ decision to add Sale to the rotation sooner rather than later, the kid’s average velocity and movement on almost all of his pitches increased as the year wore on. Sale’s slider now averaged over three inches of vertical drop (-3.03) compared to earlier in the year and has the chance to become the most dominant pitch in the American League next year and, if I may be so bold, could rival Randy Johnson’s famed “Mr. Snappy” in terms of the sheer terror it elicits from opposing hitters. …

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