Matt Harvey was nothing short of spectacular last night. There was something different about last night’s start that was the key to his success. Did anyone else pick up on it?
Answer: He only threw three change-ups the entire night.
I’ve been arguing that this kid has been throwing too many change-ups in his starts since his electric debut in Arizona. It seemed like he was forcing the change-up in his past couple of starts, and definitely moved away from that last night. Maybe he has been reading my posts here on MMO lately?
As they say, the proof is in the pudding. In the two starts that Harvey threw fewer change-ups he dominated hitters. Forget about the change-up Matty…give ‘em the heater!
His bread and butter pitches are the fastball and slider – that is what he has to stick with for the remainder of the season. The Mets should be working on building Harvey’s confidence, not working new pitch into his repertoire. The way to do that is focus on what got him here, and work on any additional pitches in the off-season.
How this kid performs over the next month can arguably set the stage for his entire career. The focus for the rest of the 2012 season should be laying a foundation for Harvey to build on going into 2013. It was very nice to see Harvey back to dominating hitters last night. The way he used his change-up last night is the way he should continue to use it the rest of the year – sparingly to keep hitters off balance. The more you throw the change-up, the less of a “change-up” it actually is.
Now that I have fixed Harvey’s pitching woes I’m going to work on the bullpen issues. Dan Warthen better watch out…I’m coming for him. 🙂
