Robbie Cano vs. sliders

The maturation of Robbie Cano into a legitimate MVP candidate has certainly been one of the most exciting parts of the 2010 season, and FanGraphs’ Albert Lyu took a look at why it’s happening. Despite being just one walk shy of tying his free pass total from 2008 and 2009 combined, Cano is actually swinging at more pitches both in and out of the strike zone this season, which caught me by surprise. He’s swinging and missing a bit more often, but the root of his success comes from his ability to hit the slider. By working deeper counts, Cano has gotten pitchers to go to their breaking stuff more often, and he’s simply murdering the soft stuff this season. Make sure you check it out, there are colorful graphs. And it’s interesting.