What's Become of Kevin Hart

When the Cubs traded Kevin Hart to the Pirates, he had just impressed everyone with a good start. His performance as a Cub looked pretty good from afar, but he was actually not as good as he was back in the Fall of 2007. He issued too many walks, but he seemed to get away with it. On balls in play, he may have been lucky, too. As a Cub, not so much as a Pirate.

Comparing his Chicago and Pittsburgh starts, all since July 8, there have been some differences. As usual, small sample size warnings apply.

• Everything is a couple MPH faster
• Throwing less strikes, fooling more batters out of the zone, but fewer called strikes
• Giving up more hits and XBH
• More grounders and liners, fewer flies and pop-ups, twice as many HR per LD+FB

The biggest change is in pitch selection. Check that out, and then the numbers behind the notes above.

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Bucs	#	MPH	Swing	Whiff	B:CS	IWZ	Chase	Watch	nkSLG	GB%	FB%	PU%	LD%	HR/FL%	rv100	rv100E
Change	26	86.7	0.423	0.273	2.0	0.577	0.182	0.400	1.000	75%	25%	0%	0%	0%	5.25	-1.33
Curve	154	80.5	0.461	0.338	3.8	0.416	0.311	0.313	0.600	52%	24%	4%	20%	0%	0.56	0.00
Sinker	194	92.7	0.516	0.150	2.5	0.412	0.333	0.225	0.460	57%	19%	3%	22%	7%	0.10	0.46
Fastball	150	94.1	0.480	0.167	2.8	0.547	0.279	0.329	0.690	21%	38%	7%	34%	10%	1.36	1.17
Slider	81	87.1	0.556	0.156	2.3	0.642	0.345	0.327	1.158	26%	53%	0%	21%	21%	6.59	1.70
Bucs	605	88.9	0.494	0.204	2.8	0.484	0.311	0.300	0.684	42%	31%	4%	24%	10%	1.62	0.61

Cubs	#	MPH	Swing	Whiff	B:CS	IWZ	Chase	Watch	nkSLG	GB%	FB%	PU%	LD%	HR/FL%	rv100	rv100E
Change	2	85.1	0.500	0.000		0.500	0.000	0.000	2.000	0%	100%	0%	0%	0%	40.05	5.05
Curve	55	79.0	0.327	0.500	3.9	0.309	0.184	0.353	0.200	20%	60%	0%	20%	0%	-1.84	0.22
Sinker	89	90.9	0.393	0.029	3.8	0.416	0.173	0.297	0.375	50%	38%	0%	13%	8%	1.93	3.87
Fastball	139	92.1	0.425	0.170	1.2	0.662	0.149	0.435	0.423	23%	46%	15%	15%	6%	-1.57	-0.60
Slider	78	85.6	0.385	0.200	2.6	0.539	0.194	0.429	0.455	55%	18%	9%	18%	0%	0.56	0.22
Cubs	363	88.4	0.394	0.182	2.2	0.521	0.172	0.397	0.418	37%	40%	7%	15%	5%	-0.07	0.83