Reader Request: A Look at Rich Harden

I was asked recently about Rich Harden. His velocity has been down for much of this year and he experienced a sudden jump in velocity during his May 3rd start against Oakland. While his velocity dropped again in his next start, he rebounded on May 14th with his second best start from a velocity standpoint and may have fixed whatever problem he was having with his velocity, though from a results standpoint, it was his worst start of the year. Still, let’s take a look at Harden and see what differences there are, if any. On the left is Harden throwing a 95 mph fastball, while on the right Harden is throwing an 88 mph fastball. Keep in mind the angles are a little different.

*Credit to MLB Advanced Media

It was suggested that Harden had a little hesitation in the middle of his delivery earlier in the season and that may have been a reason for the diminished the velocity. For the particular pitches above, it’s true one key difference is that on the 95 mph pitch there is no hesitation while on the 88 mph pitch there is a hesitation. I’m not sure you can pick it up in the above graphics, however, as it’s easier to see at full speed. In any case, the problem with using this as a possible reason for velocity loss is that this might just be isolated to one pitch and I’ve seen Harden vary his tempo on a pitch-to-pitch basis at times.

Still, on the two pitches shown above, that hesitation does alter some other things in Harden’s delivery. For instance, the hands break sooner on the 95 mph pitch — it’s around that point, Harden hesitates a bit in his delivery on the 88 mph pitch. And while the angle makes it difficult to judge conclusively, Harden’s step over move looks a bit more powerful on the 95 mph version — it’s a bigger step over and it might be a reason why he plants a full frame later on the 95 mph pitch than the 88 mph one. The early landing could definitely impact his timing and a disruption in timing can result in decreased velocity.

That said, it’s hard to point to one specific thing that could result in velocity loss since changing one part of your mechanics automatically leads to other changes as everything is sequenced and must timed efficiently in order to produce to the best of your ability.

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