Snell, who's now 10-4 with a 2.31 ERA through 17 starts, attributes a lot of his improvement to an adjustment he made to his foot placement on the pitching rubber late last season, Bill Chastain of MLB.com reports.
Snell was lining up on the third-base side of the rubber for the first 14 starts of 2017, a stretch during which he generated a 4.98 ERA, 1.58 WHIP and 5.1 BB/9. The young left-hander subsequently adjusted his positioning to the middle of the rubber, and the improvement in his control and overall performance was evident. The aforementioned figures dropped to 2.84, 1.02 and 3.1, respectively, over his last 10 starts of 2017, and he's been similarly impressive throughout the majority of this season. Snell boasts a 28.1 percent strikeout rate and 13.5 percent swinging-strike rate so far in 2018.