Prime Harden

Last time out, Rich Harden was wild and got beat—badly. On Saturday afternoon, Harden worked five innings in Citi Field. The Mets scored twice, only one earned on a home run, and Harden struck out 10 in five innings. It was as good as it gets, or close to it, for Harden.

The number in parentheses is the ranking of that metric against the other 50 Rich Harden starts covered by PITCHf/x since 2007. The second parentheses contain the rank amongst his 24 2009 starts.

Average speed (all pitches)
91.6 (4) (3)

Swing Rate
.546 (6) (1)

Whiff Rate
.407 (6) (4)

B:CS ratio
1.8 (7) (3)

In Wide Strike Zone
.576 (9) (5)

Swing Rate Out of Zone ("Chase")
.477 (1) (1)

Take Rate In the Zone ("Watch")
.404 (12) (8)

SLGCON
.833 (40) (18)

GB%
58% (2nd highest) (1)

FB%
8% (1st lowest) (1)

PU%
17% (12th highest) (5)

LD%
17% (21st lowest) (10)

HR/FB
.333 (51st highest) (24)

rv100
0.72 (39th lowest) (17)

rv100E
-2.76 (3rd lowest) (1)

The rv100 takes a hit on the home run, but the rv100E treats it like any other outfield fly ball (worth part of a home run, an out, single, double and triple) and loves the ground ball rate.

You can easily argue the Mets were aggressive at the plate, but Harden was throwing a lot of strikes.