Rich Harden's control has been on and off lately. Off in a big way against the Reds, where he needed over 100 pitches to throw four innings. It took him 40 to get through the first.
Two starts ago, Harden's control was awful. Last time out, it was much better - and Harden was at his best. On Friday, his control was even worse than the "wild" game of August 31. You have to go back to May 23, 2008 to find a game where Harden found the zone less often.
Defining strikes as any pitch that crosses a two-foot wide plate and is within the top/bottom average zone for each hitter. For each game, the PITCHf/x operators set a top and bottom for each hitter. I'm using the average - across all games - for each hitter.
In Wide Zone rate, going back past his best game since at least 2008 (7/21) to the beginning of July:
July 4 .563
July 10 .563
July 16 .515
July 21 .617
July 26 .533
July 31 .606
August 5 .471
August 11 .598
August 19 .456
August 26 .558
August 31 .408
September 5 .576
September 11 .388
Harden hasn't put together two straight outings with good command since July. The Major League average for 2009 is .526, Harden's IWZ rate for 2009 .511 so he's below average to begin with.
Being "wild" isn't all bad for Harden, in small doses. His change-up isn't really meant to be a strike (not a called one, at least) and running the heater up and out of the zone can be a very good thing for Harden.
From the looks of things, Harden was missing glove side against the Reds on Patriot Day.
August 31, also wild against the Mets, was not quite the same problem. Missing glove side a lot, but some strikes on the inner side to righties.
The good start (9/5), also against the Mets in Citi Field, for comparison:
Far from perfect, he was able to attack both sides of the plate. The pattern also lacks the top-left-to-bottom-right spray especially prevalent against the Reds.
Original Story:
http://www.cubsfx.com/2009/09/wilder-...
Two starts ago, Harden's control was awful. Last time out, it was much better - and Harden was at his best. On Friday, his control was even worse than the "wild" game of August 31. You have to go back to May 23, 2008 to find a game where Harden found the zone less often.
Defining strikes as any pitch that crosses a two-foot wide plate and is within the top/bottom average zone for each hitter. For each game, the PITCHf/x operators set a top and bottom for each hitter. I'm using the average - across all games - for each hitter.
In Wide Zone rate, going back past his best game since at least 2008 (7/21) to the beginning of July:
July 4 .563
July 10 .563
July 16 .515
July 21 .617
July 26 .533
July 31 .606
August 5 .471
August 11 .598
August 19 .456
August 26 .558
August 31 .408
September 5 .576
September 11 .388
Harden hasn't put together two straight outings with good command since July. The Major League average for 2009 is .526, Harden's IWZ rate for 2009 .511 so he's below average to begin with.
Being "wild" isn't all bad for Harden, in small doses. His change-up isn't really meant to be a strike (not a called one, at least) and running the heater up and out of the zone can be a very good thing for Harden.
From the looks of things, Harden was missing glove side against the Reds on Patriot Day.
August 31, also wild against the Mets, was not quite the same problem. Missing glove side a lot, but some strikes on the inner side to righties.
The good start (9/5), also against the Mets in Citi Field, for comparison:
Far from perfect, he was able to attack both sides of the plate. The pattern also lacks the top-left-to-bottom-right spray especially prevalent against the Reds.
Original Story:
http://www.cubsfx.com/2009/09/wilder-...
