Updated:No, that's not a slider.
Rich Harden was pretty impressive on Saturday against the Giants. His command wasn't sharp the whole time out, but he was able to throw two or three pitches and change speeds. He dialed up some serious heat towards the end, so this looks like a guy who has figured out how to pitch in a way that's compatible with his physical make-up. Or limitations.
That may be optimistic on my part, but I get the feeling he's not the next Mark Prior. He's not the next Jim Palmer, either, but he's something very special and adds a dimension to the Cubs that they didn't have before: A second guy with no-hit stuff.
Maddog talked about what he saw from Harden in the comments in Friday's post.
I think Harden is throwing some sliders. I know I saw a couple yesterday, but not many at all (less than 5 and maybe even only 2 or 3). He's strictly fastball/changeup for the most part.
I pulled down the PFX numbers from last night, and, guess what, I think Maddog is spot on.
There's more in the comments from me and Jon (who I believe is the spokesman for northsidebaseball.com) and a great link.
Jon Quoting Rob Bowen:His changeup acts like three different pitches, and one of them has real similar action to a split.
I added a comment, retracting my previous assertion(s) about the "slider". Change-ups, Benjamin, Change-ups. And some sliders.
| cfx | L | R | mph | pfx_x | pfx_z | deg | rpm | B:CS | corner% | Sw% | Whiff% | SwOZ% | TaIZ% | HR% | NKS | G:AO |
| CH | 15 | 16 | 87.4 | -2.3 | 5.7 | 203 | 771 | 1.4 | 16.13 | 61.29 | 26.32 | 35.71 | 13.64 | 0.0 | 0.667 | 0.5 |
| FA | 35 | 25 | 94.1 | -3.7 | 11.3 | 198 | 1,585 | 2.3 | 11.67 | 50.00 | 20.00 | 36.67 | 29.73 | 0.0 | 0.600 | 0.5 |
| SL | 2 | 3 | 86.7 | -0.4 | 4.1 | 186 | 513 | 20.00 | 60.00 | 33.33 | 50.00 | 0.00 | 0.0 | |||
| 52 | 44 | 91.5 | -3.1 | 9.1 | 199 | 1,267 | 2.1 | 13.54 | 54.17 | 23.08 | 37.50 | 22.95 | 0.0 | 0.636 | 0.5 |
Spin Movement
Release Points
The small sample exaggerates the slider's position in the aggregate view.
Flight Paths
Not fair. Not fair at all.
Plate Locations
Harden missed too much by his own standard, but Rich was pretty pumped-up, too.
| # | FA | CH | SL | ||
| L | first | 12 | 50.0 | 41.7 | 8.3 |
| L | ahead | 13 | 69.2 | 30.8 | 0.0 |
| L | behind | 15 | 93.3 | 6.7 | 0.0 |
| L | even | 6 | 33.3 | 66.7 | 0.0 |
| L | full | 6 | 66.7 | 16.7 | 16.7 |
| # | FA | CH | SL | ||
| R | first | 12 | 58.3 | 33.3 | 8.3 |
| R | ahead | 19 | 52.6 | 42.1 | 5.3 |
| R | behind | 6 | 66.7 | 16.7 | 16.7 |
| R | even | 6 | 50.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 |
| R | full | 1 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Again, a righty working ahead on righties, behind a lefties. Something for future research....
I'll be going back, at some point, to review Harden's pitches from my previous posts and see if I can sort them out into something that is more accurate.
4 comments:
"He dialed up some serious heat towards the end, so this looks like a guy who has figured out how to pitch in a way that's compatible with his physical make-up. Or limitations."
I was hoping to dig into that a little more at some point, but that's a great observation. It looks like there's a trend this year for Harden's fastball to dip a tad in velocity starting around the 3rd or 4th innings (roughly), but he can still bring the heat later on if he needs to. It could very well be a conscious tactic.
And if he isn't getting into jams with a 91-92 mph fastball, there's little reason for him to pump it up. It will just make his 96-97 mph heater that much more effective later one.
Is it possible that he is using the same grip and a slightly different arm slot to achieve that movement? On the Oakland site Bowen was quoted as saying Rich can make that pitch move in a few different ways.
Adam - That's a good question. Looking at the release points, there may be some groups in there. Cutting the change-ups into smaller groupings may be do-able. It does amaze me the guy can get three pitches out of the circle grip, but he is an amazing pitcher. Arm slot could play a role, but, it seems that one of his strengths is that consistent arm slot.
Once I re-ID his pitches, I'm going to do a LHH/RHH split and see if there's anything that pops, or sneaks, out of that.
Jon, I couldn't agree more about dialing up the heat. Speed up their bats early, when they can't catch up, catch them "off speed" in the middle, and, with whatever's left in the tank, blow their doors off as required towards the end.
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