Top 25 MLB players to watch in October

6. Corey Kluber

Oh — you thought Corey Kluber was good last season? He’s been unconscious this season. The Klubot is 17-4 with a 2.35 ERA and leads the league in wins, ERA, complete games, shutouts, WHIP, hits per nine and walks per nine. In the second half, Kluber is 10-1 with a 1.92 ERA. If not for Rick Porcello winning the Cy Young last year because pitcher wins, the Cleveland right-hander with the unhittable breaking ball might be accepting his third award after the votes are counted.

Given his first taste of the postseason last year, Kluber put the Indians on his back and carried them to the World Series. He went 4-1 with a 1.83 ERA in six starts, including two wins in the World Series.

Kluber has given up only 18 hits on his slider the entire season. Opponents have hit .085 against the pitch with 125 strikeouts. It is a pitch unlike any other in the game today. Kluber’s slider has more velocity and bite than the average curveball. He mixes in three different fastballs to keep hitters off balance.

The Indians ace just pounds hitters with his heavy fastballs and then blows them away with his breaking ball with two strikes. His velocity is nothing special, but a pitcher who can command 93 mph with movement to both sides of the plate and finish it off with a devastating slider is made to succeed in the postseason.