Morning Mound Visit: sabermetrics news - 3/19/19

FanGraphs | Ben Clemens: Aroldis Chapman is known for his fastball, but what about his slider? It had the highest whiff rate of any slider last year, and the highest whiff rate (and swing rate) of sliders in the zone. The most amazing part is that he throws it like a fastball in that he tries to just get it over the plate, and that induces swings and misses.

Baseball Prospectus | Rob Mains ($): One of the sticking points for the next CBA will be arbitration and service time, which is a hot-button issue now that the free agent market has gotten colder. This is because of a confluence of trends: the game is getting younger; teams aren’t paying older players; and, the accrued service time of players is getting shorter as they peak earlier, hit free agency later, and retire earlier.

The Athletic | Emily Waldon ($): Here’s the flip side of “baseball players are overpaid millionaires”: Waldon talks to minor league players who make less than $10,000 per year, and goes behind the scenes in a league where they have actively lobbied to circumvent minimum wage and labor laws, including making Spring Training unpaid. The top-line of salaries are hurting, but the lower rungs are starving.