Pittsburgh Pirates had Camilo Doval going in the right direction before SF Giants move

The SF Giants hope to fix Camilo Doval, but that process seems to have started with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In his brief time with Pittsburgh, they shifted his pitch mix by leading with his slider again.

Doval's time with the New York Yankees did not go well, and it is pretty easy to see what went wrong. They had him leading with his fastball rather than his slider.

The sinker is a solid offering, especially since it can reach triple digits, but it is not necessarily the best pitch in his arsenal. The slider is. Presumably, the Yankees wanted Doval to throw his sinker more due to playing half of their games at Yankee Stadium.

Doval's slider moves from armside to gloveside, which can be problematic for a right-handed pitcher. It does not take much to hit the ball out of the park to right field in Yankee Stadium. That type of pitch movement usually leads to a lot of contact to the right side. On the other hand, his sinker gets plenty of armside movement, which leads to a lot of contact to the left side.

That approach did not work, as Doval posted a 4.63 ERA in 66 appearances with New York. He was shipped to the Pirates at the trade deadline, and the results were more favorable. The improvement largely has to do with a shift back to his slider. With the Pirates, Doval was throwing that pitch nearly 40 percent of the time. That is a notable shift from earlier in the year, when he was using it around 30 percent of the time.

SF Giants reliever Camilo Doval went back to his slider and saw better results

This led to beter results. Doval posted a 3.79 ERA with 23 strikeouts and 14 walks with the Pirates. He was getting hitters to swing and miss, while still showing well below-average control.

Poor control has been a trait throughout Doval's career, and it has not stopped him from being an effective reliever in the past. However, the Giants hope that he can throw enough strikes to return to being a leverage reliever.

They certainly need the help. Interestingly, the Giants claimed Doval with three games to go. He is under team control through next year and is due for a raise. One way or the other, the Giants will have a decision to make on the former NL All-Star. Perhaps, the fix has already been made, and the Giants need to carry over that pitch mix from Pittsburgh.

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