Kyle Harrison, if there were any questions remaining, is for real.
With another gem May 26 in a 6-0 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals – six scoreless innings that ran his shutout streak to 18 consecutive innings – the young Milwaukee Brewers left-hander dropped his ERA to 1.74 and with underlying metrics to match that shiny exterior.
Acquired in the off-season along with David Hamilton and Shane Drohan for Caleb Durbin, Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler, the heist is growing by the day.
What makes Harrison’s ascent even more impressive is how he’s gotten to that point. After three years of intermittent big-league time, Harrison is putting all the ingredients together now that he’s in Milwaukee.
Here’s how they got to the point where Harrison is one of the game’s best starting pitchers through two months.
One small adjustment after another.
For the final batter he faced in an exhibition tune-up at American Family Field, Harrison slid over to the first base side of the rubber. Harrison struck the hitter out in a left-on-left matchup, and with that, the Brewers had found something.
“Tried it for one hitter,” Harrison said. “[Pitching coach Chris] Hook was like, ‘That looks great, man. He had no chance against that slider.’ Tried it out in the next game and from there it stuck.”
The rubber adjustment, it turned out, enhanced a different adjustment the Brewers and Harrison made.
A low-arm slot, riding fastball like Harrison’s plays up in the zone, but Harrison felt he wasn’t disrupting hitters’ timing enough by peppering them middle-up. He and the Brewers decided to attack right-handed batters by going up and in with more regularity.
A year ago, only 10.1% of Harrison’s four-seamers were either up and in to righties or up and away to lefties. This year, he’s at 17.8%.
“I feel that kind of bottled me into not really moving hitters,” Harrison said. “Doing more and more research, looking into it, guys are going to naturally be on time for the pitch away rather than the inside pitch. Just naturally, with swing angles, they’re going to have a harder time. For me, that’s something I’ve thought about and really just tried to attack inside to righties.”
Other adjustments have helped Harrison
Harrison feels the angle he’s created on the mound allows him to better hit that spot to his glove-side. While he’s still chucking his fastball predominantly to the other side of the plate and elevating it – as that’s the more natural spot for his delivery – it’s still been a factor in his success, he believes.
That’s emblematic of the larger picture for the 24-year-old.
Harrison’s quantum leap isn’t due to any one massive stride, but rather the piecing together of a bunch of smaller steps.
Here are a few more:
-Harrison has added 15 to 20 pounds since the start of spring training, something he credits for his ability to consistently execute his fastballs up and pitch deeper into games.
“I know a lot of guys lose it during the season,” Harrison said of his weight. “I gain it. I just get it in my routine to drink a lot. I start pounding electrolytes, I get my protein in. I need that weight. My velo is trending up, everything is trending up.”
-Harrison, using his added strength, is getting into his legs better. That has coincided with an uptick in velocity. Harrison averaged 95.0 mph against the Cardinals, which is right at his season average. Two years ago, he was sitting 92 mph.
He uses a yellow band during catch play and warm-ups to ensure he’s maintaining tension in the front side of his torso and using his legs to drive toward the plate rather than overthrowing.
“I’ve been working with this yellow band, feeling how much tension you need in your front side to land hard,” he said. “For me, I’m landing hard and I’m really keeping that strong front side. The band helps me stay in there and not bail out like I did most of my career when I’d have bad, uncompetitive misses. That’s helped me this year being more consistent with my lower half, getting in my legs and staying behind the ball. My misses aren’t as up and away. That’s a waste of a pitch to these guys.”
-The Brewers have raised Harrison’s arm slot to 33 degrees, up from a 24-degree slot two years ago that almost made him a sidearmer. He credits his consistency with hitting his fastball spots up top and not having hardly any that sail on him to the shift.
“I think it’s helped a ton,” Harrison said. “Being so low and upshoot last year, it was hard for me to consistently pepper the top.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: How has Kyle Harrison become MLB’s top breakout starter? Here’s a look
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
