Many fans fail to realize that Romo had a very successful 2010 campaign as the Giants' eighth inning man. After overcoming a rocky start the season, he was lights out down the stretch, finishing with an impressive 2.18 ERA and a 5.00 K/BB ratio. His peripherals were not amazing, but he pounded the zone, recording a strike on the first pitch 68.4% of the time. Romo did give up his share of heart-breakers, and unfortunately, that's what people will remember. If you need a reminder, just click here or here.
Thanks to a notable lack of position battles this year in camp, Romo's newly developed sinker has been one of the hottest topics in camp. The quote below pretty much explains why he feels the need to supplement his already-wicked arsenal.
As we've seen before, allowing an epic late-inning home run can put a pitcher in a manager's doghouse or even out of a job. In his first two years in the majors, Romo was primarily a high-strikeout flyball guy, and consequently, has been prone to the occasional long ball. Many people believe that he is beginning to address this problem now with the development of a two-seamer, but in reality, Romo began to evolve as a pitcher during the middle of last year."I'm at that point in my career where everybody's looking for the slider. That's my pitch. I don't want to get caught having to throw it."
Romo's "time warp" slider is unmistakably his most devastating pitch. He seems to have confidence with it in any count or situation, and threw it about 36% of the time last season. Unfortunately, he is bound to chuck a couple of bad ones when he utilizes it with such great frequency. Nearly all of the home runs Romo allows seem to come on hanging sliders that miss up in the zone. Let's take a look at his slider velocity over the last three years, particularly at the surge in the second half of 2010.
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| Courtesy of fangraphs.com |
If this data is fairly accurate, Romo began throwing his slider a bit harder after his rough start to the season. Offspeed pitches are generally successful for one of two reasons -- they are either slow enough to fool the batter or appear to be a fastball coming out of the pitcher's hand. Romo probably started to throw the slider harder as the year went along to prevent hitters from sitting on hanging pitches. Let's see what effect this has on his vertical and horizontal movement.
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| Courtesy of fangraphs.com |
The slider in question is denoted on the graphs in red. The graph on the left side shows that as pitch velocity increases, horizontal movement tends to decrease. On the other hand, the right graph shows that vertical movement increases with more velocity. I've already mentioned this, but I'll reiterate it once again. Vertical movement is the most important factor in inducing ground balls. In throwing his slider harder, Romo is making a conscious effort to keep the ball in the yard. His actual results seem to indicate that this approach is working.
Mar/Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sept/Oct | |
HR/9 | 0.77 | 1.86 | 1.74 | 0.00 | 0.96 | 0.00 |
GB/FB | 0.53 | 0.59 | 0.43 | 0.92 | 0.91 | 1.00 |
FIP | 1.96 | 6.39 | 4.14 | 1.71 | 3.40 | 0.40 |
This data is far being 100% conclusive -- mostly because Romo only threw about 10 innings every month -- but it's hard to argue with results. The guy nearly doubled his GB/FB rate halfway through the season and only gave up one home run in the last three months. And although his slider velocity is most likely involved, I don't think we can attribute it to any one factor. The only thing that I'm willing to conclude is that Romo is learning to adapt to the league. His eagerness to add a two-seamer to his repertoire reinforces this notion. Let's take one last look at Romo's heat maps to see how he might further improve this year.
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| Courtesy of fangraphs.com |
Romo is much more comfortable throwing his slider to same-handed batters, as is the case with most pitchers. If he were to develop a devastating two-seamer, he could potentially eliminate his slight platoon split. It is important for closers to be effective against batters from both sides, as they are often called to pitch an entire inning, regardless of who is due to hit. As the season begins, it will interesting to watch how the success of his new sinker will alter the use of his trademark slider. If Romo shows that he can suppress lefties and continues to limit home runs, he should be the leading candidate for the closer role in Wilson's absence.
