In the last few seasons, the Phillies bullpen has cycled through plenty of pitchers whose time in the pinstripes were limited. As the plethora of Latin pitching prospects start to reach the majors, we are starting to see more and more players who will last in the big leagues. Edubray Ramos has shown the potential to be a pitcher who will stick in the majors.
Ramos has been impressive as a reliever so far for the Phillies, posting a 10.8 K/9 and continuing to show his solid control with just a 1.35 BB/9.
What has been crucial to Ramos’s success has been his focus on his slider. In the past, Ramos has worked on four different pitches between his fastball, slider, curve, and changeup. This year, Ramos has whittled his arsenal down to just two pitches: his slider and fastball.
Ramos’s fastball has held its velocity jump from last year, averaging just under 95 while topping out slightly above 97. This has always been his best pitch, and it continues to be.
What’s been crucial for Ramos’s success in 2016 has been the marked improvement of his slider. Brooks Baseball’s “At-A-Glance” has quite the rave review of it:
His slider generates an extremely high number of swings & misses compared to other pitchers’ sliders, sweeps across the zone, has exceptional depth, is an extreme flyball pitch compared to other pitchers’ sliders
If we look at his slider’s trajectory, we can easily see why the slider generates so many swings and misses.
With that kind of trajectory on his slider, Ramos could become a high-leverage reliever. We will have to see more of Ramos against major-league talent to truly gauge what kind of role he would have, but their is clearly potential with Ramos’s two-pitch punch.
Image Courtesy Baseball Betsy, Charts Courtesy Texas Leaguers