What Makes Marmol's Slider So Effective?

[Ski]

I know Marmol is a dominant set up guy, but what makes his slider so good? It may be just me, but it looks like he hangs it most of the time. Is there something different I'm not seeing?

[OleMissCub]

It's just real good.

[treebird]

i've seen it speculated a lot that, when it's on, it looks a lot like the fastball and has remarkably late movement.

[Jon]

Josh Kalk's player cards really illustrate (literally) his consistent release point:

 

http://baseball.bornbybits.com/2008/gifs/Carlos_Marmol4.gif

 

That's for 2008. His slider is classified as a curve

[Sammy Sofa]

Onions and cheese and 10 to a sack.

[BigbadB]

Watching Marmol transition from a catcher to a pitcher makes me want to see the Cubs switch out all of their farm system hitters into pitchers, since most of them can't hit anyway.

[Electron Blue]

Josh Kalk's player cards really illustrate (literally) his consistent release point:

 

http://baseball.bornbybits.com/2008/gifs/Carlos_Marmol4.gif

 

That's for 2008. His slider is classified as a curve

 

I'm not so hot with math or charts... would the point of that chart be that since the FB and curve have such similar release points, they are harder to distinguish from eachother?

[BigbadB]

Yes. Marmol's slider is more than 10 MPH slower than his fastball. If the hitter can't pick up what's coming out of his hand, the hitter has to guess. With the late movement of Marmol's slider, it makes it even harder for the hitter to make an adjustment, thus creating swings and misses rather than foul balls.