Noah Syndergaard's Quote on His Slider Should Worry Mets Fans

Noah Syndergaard is regarded as one of baseball's best pitchers, making a name for himself with his high velocity and filthy breaking pitches. Thor currently has 4.93 ERA the worst mark of his career, and has surrendered 10 home runs in just 69.1 innings of work.

Syndergaard's poor season has come as a surprise for the Mets, and even more shockingly has been the decline of arguably the right hander's best pitch, his slider. Oft his go-to strikeout pitch, Thor's slider has vanished, leaving everyone, including Syndergaard, perplexed as to why it's no longer been effective.

I don't know what happened to having one of the best sliders in the game, to now having zero confidence in throwing it."

- Noah Syndergaard

The slider used to be a deadly weapon for Syndergaard, who threw the pitch 20% of the time last season. Thor's slider averaged 92 mph last season, but a major velocity decrease has plagued him thus far in 2019, as the pitch has dropped to an average of 88.7 mph. Opponents are slugging .512 when facing with Syndergaard's' slider, an extremely bad result for any pitch.

This season, Syndergaard has only thrown his slider 13.1% of the time. The big decrease in usage has been a result of the pitch losing favor with Syndergaard, as its ineffectiveness has plagued him. Sure, he's had instances in which he's thrown a beautiful slider this season, but ultimately it's been inconsistent at best, and a dangerous pitch to throw considering it's been a catalyst for the long ball.

Syndergaard is having a confidence crisis, and it revolves around his renowned slider. If he wants to turn his season around he is going to have to some how regain the slider that allowed him to dominate opponents in the past.

Expect Thor to tinker around with the pitch until he figures it out, but until then, Thor will continue to try to utilize his other pitches, and hope that he doesn't get burnt by the long ball.