Houston’s Hunter Brown Debuted a New Supply in His Final Begin

Hunter Brown had but to pitch above High-A when he was first featured right here at FanGraphs in April 2021. Two years faraway from being drafted within the fifth spherical out of Wayne State University, expectations surrounding the Detroit-area native had been excessive coming into that season, as he was ranked because the no. 2 prospect (50 FV) within the Houston Astros system. He’s since lived as much as these expectations. Brown not solely made his large league debut final September, he went on to log three scoreless appearances within the postseason, together with one by which he blanked the Seattle Mariners within the twelfth and thirteenth innings of an epic 1-0 Astros win that took 18 frames to finish. This season he’s been a mainstay within the Houston rotation. Over 25 begins, the hard-throwing right-hander is 10-9 with a 4.47 ERA, a 3.71 FIP, and 152 strikeouts in 133 innings.

Brown mentioned a latest change to his supply, and the present high quality of his curveball, on Monday, someday earlier than celebrating his twenty fifth birthday.

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David Laurila: We talked pitching two years in the past. Outside of being within the large leagues, what has modified since that point?

Hunter Brown: “My stuff and my pitch shapes are similar, but I actually made a bit of a change in my last outing. There’s a difference in my windup, and in the stretch, where my hands are coming set. And my shoulders are already lined up out of the windup. It’s just a little rocker step kind of deal. That’s something we’ve been talking about for a while. We’re trying to clean up some inconsistencies that came with my previous [delivery]. It worked against the Tigers [on August 26], and hopefully it will continue to work.”

Laurila: When you say that your shoulders are already lined up, do you imply that you simply’re not beginning out squared as much as the plate, after which turning to start out your supply?

Brown: “Correct. This way there are fewer things to time up — the timing of my hands going down with the step back, my leg coming up with the hands, and then the hand break. Now it’s just kind of get to the top, break, and go.”

Laurila: How lengthy earlier than implementing it within the Tigers recreation did you begin work on simplifying your supply?

Brown: “We tinkered with things in the bullpen to see what… essentially, we wanted to get me to the same point of where I am at the top of my leg lift, with where my hands are, in the most simplistic way. This was it. But I’d say that I’ve been doing a couple different things for probably three weeks.”

Laurila: What had been you seeing on video previous to the adjustment?

Brown: “When my hands go up, followed by my leg… are they going up at the same time?”

Laurila: Basically, how every little thing was syncing up?

Brown: “Exactly. And on different pitches it was different, too. One day I might have a great breaking ball day, but that might lead to a poor fastball day with the way my hands and my legs were shooting up. Hopefully this is going to be all gravy, all the time.”

Laurila: Does it really feel pure?

Brown: “It’s still a little uncomfortable. The first time getting in a game with it and going in the stretch when it’s, ‘OK, I’ve got to make some big pitches now’… I mean, it was new, so it wasn’t fully comfortable. But you have to make so many adjustments in this game, in baseball, that you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.”

Laurila: Were your velocity or motion profiles impacted in any respect?

Brown: “Not really. Velo and shape-wise were pretty consistent with before, nothing that would lead to, ‘OK, I don’t know if we want to sacrifice the movement profile for that.’ Everything seemed to line up pretty good.”

Laurila: What about in comparison with after we talked beforehand?

Brown: “I would say that my offspeed is a little harder, which has led to my curveball being a little shorter. I also think that I had a little more horizontal break on my curveball at the beginning of this year, but over the last month or so it’s been more consistent to that five inches and [less], versus that five to seven horizontal range that it was for the majority of the year.”

Laurila: What are you taking pictures for?

Brown: “I mean, ideally you can throw 20-plus inches of depth with less than five horizontal. Those are obviously the extremes. If I could average 15 and five, I would be happy with that. I’m generally around that now, but on different days it will change, which is why we’re trying to clean some of these things up.”

Laurila: You stated that the rate is slightly increased?

Brown: “Yes. I’m probably averaging about 83 [mph] this year, versus 80 over the course of last year. So about a 3-mph jump on the curveball.”

Laurila: How completely satisfied are you with how your curveball has performed this season?

Brown: “It hasn’t played in-zone as well as I’d like, but I think that’s been more of a pitch selection, pitch sequencing thing. Earlier in the year, I maybe wasn’t using it enough behind in the count. And sometimes I’d get ahead and guys would expect me to throw a breaking ball in the next couple of pitches, so if I left it in the zone they were ready for it. That’s something I ran into a little bit.”

Laurila: Any ultimate ideas on pitching?

Brown: “My favorite pitch to throw is actually the changeup. I just don’t throw it very often.”

Laurila: Why is it your favourite?

Brown: “Because it’s difficult for me, and I kind of like that. Everything I throw is pretty much glove-side movement — even my fastball is close to the line; it’s not a big runner like a lot of guys’. So yeah, something that moves the other way, whether in the bullpen or in a game, is something I enjoy throwing. It’s fun for me.”

Laurila: Unless it will get hit arduous…

Brown: “Yeah, that’s the worst. That’s any pitch, though.”