The day after Bartolo Colon hit his historic first home run, he offered Matt Harvey a bit of advice to get into the homer club. Harvey, Colon opined, needed to hit the weight room to turn his doubles into homers. While said in jest, Colon just may have been on to something there.
The Mets’ beleaguered ace was at a loss for words after his mediocre showing against the Rockies last night, in which he went 5.2 innings and gave up five earned runs and 11 hits. Give him credit for battling because he seemed to give it his all, but his post-game comments revealed a pitcher that is clearly lost on the mound.
“From one start to the next, it doesn’t feel the same at all,” Harvey said after the game. “I’m just not feeling comfortable throwing the baseball right now.” Those are tough words from a pitcher who just a few years ago was the toast of the town.
Harvey and the team insist it’s not an injury issue. He feels just fine, they say, at least in terms of physical health. If it’s not some undiagnosed injury, which is still a possible explanation, then just what is it? Not only has he been inconsistent with his command and the quality of his pitches, his velocity on them has been erratic as well.
After hitting the high-90s with his fastball against the Padres on May 8th and looking mostly like the Harvey of old, his velocity dropped back down to 92-93 mph. It’s a safe bet that the lack of velocity not only makes his fastball less effective, but it spills over into his other stuff. If the hitters don’t need to worry so much about the heater they can sit on his breaking balls. They did just that last night, teeing off on both his slider and his curve, which themselves weren’t of the highest quality.
Way back in 2010 there was an article in the NY Times by Joe Brescia about a drop in velocity of some prominent pitchers that otherwise seemed healthy. The article itself isn’t short on speculation as to why a healthy pitcher loses velocity, and it ranges from less-than-scientific opinions from former players to advice from sports medicine doctors. What most of it seems to boil down to, however, is mechanics and strength.
In the article Dr. Glenn Fleisig, then chairman of research at the American Sports Medicine Institute, stated, “The only two possible reasons a pitcher would have less velocity would be they changed their mechanics or they have less strength.”
Let’s take a quick look at a subsection of Harvey’s mechanics: arm slot. Note that the following images are stills of the SNY and PIX game feeds. The first image below is from the aforementioned game against the Padres. It was a 94 mph fastball against Brett Wallace in the bottom of the second inning.
The next image is from the game last night. It’s also a fastball, this time at 92 mph against Gerardo Parra and also in the second inning.
Now, we need to address a couple of things upfront with these images. These are different cameras at what appear to be slightly different angles, so this skews our view a bit. Additionally, these images are the result of the timing of me very unprofessionally hitting the pause button on the game feed.
Still, even with those caveats, it does appear that Harvey’s arm slot is slightly higher on the fastball during the Padres game in which we all thought he might have righted himself. It also seems as though he’s leaning his body more towards first base during his delivery against the Rockies, like he’s dragging his arm across his body more. Of course, that also could be the result of at what point in his follow-through I captured. However, based on the positioning of his feet/legs, it seems pretty close. How about any differences within the same game?
The image below is an 87 mph slider to Trevor Story in the fifth inning last night.
The image below is an 87 mph slider to DJ LeMahieu in the sixth inning.
The same caveats apply here, and Harvey is clearly further into his motion against LeMahieu than Story, but his arm slot does appear to be a slightly lower against LeMahieu. Perhaps slight variations don’t make much of a difference when all is said and done. Perhaps they make all the difference in the world, especially when seemingly nothing is going right for you.
Obviously pitcher mechanics are much more complex than simply arm slot. Maybe Harvey’s release point is erratic. Maybe he’s not pushing off as well as he should. Maybe he’s landing inconsistently. These are all things that a pitcher and his pitching coach can pick up watching video, though. Still, seeing them and fixing them (and their potential underlying problems) are two separate issues.
Identifying mechanics and strength seem like no-brainers here when trying to diagnose pitcher issues. It could be that Harvey actually has been affected by pitching so much in his first year back from Tommy John surgery. A decrease in arm/shoulder/elbow strength could be the cause for his decreased velocity which, in turn, has affected the effectiveness of his secondary offerings.
Fleisig made an additional observation that makes something seemingly (and relatively) simple more complex. Pitchers sometimes change mechanics because of an underlying medical issue. We’ve all seen this before, but in some cases the change might be so subtle that simply watching video may not make these changes in mechanics readily apparent. This could not only leave the injury undiagnosed but also leave the player at a loss for how to fix their troubles.
In Harvey’s case, the frustration is clearly building to a breaking point. His body language shows it on the mound as do his post-game comments. This is a big test for Harvey, possibly bigger than his rehabilitation from surgery. How he handles it and whether or not he comes out on the other side as the dominant pitcher he once was will have a great impact on a fickle fan base’s perception of his legacy in New York. That fan base, as frustrated as he is, has already shown to lack patience for the pitcher once thought to be the potential savior of a franchise thirsting for excellence.
Harvey is a competitor and a talent. All athletes go through these stretches. He’ll learn a lot about himself physically and mentally.
I give it 3 more starts to figure it out until I’m concerned
Well, Dr. Fleisig posits that it can only be mechanics or lack of strength.
One would think that Harvey didn’t just suddenly forget how to pitch after all these years (including the minors). And even if that was remotely possible, working with Warthen these past few starts should have fixed it, if the problem was mechanical.
That leaves “strength”. The pattern has been that the first few innings he’s pitched pretty well, then he loses it. Well, that also fits the pattern of him wearing down.
It certainly seems related to his workload last year.
Hopefully, it’s nothing permanent.
Maybe he just needs an extended rest.
Unfortunately, we’re in the middle of the season!
Ugh! Injuries! 2016 could be like 1987!
Yeah, could certainly be just a strength issue. Maybe with a healthy dose of self-doubt that perhaps he’s not really faced in his life. This has got to be the biggest struggle he’s faced as an athlete outside of his surgery, right? After all, he even burst on to the NY scene with a flourish and essentially instant fame. Now he’s not even the best pitcher in the rotation.
It is difficult to know what is wrong with Harvey, let alone write about it. Your attempt was a commendable job and I appreciate the hard work in presenting it. It makes me sad that we could not connect in Baltimore over a beer and share your very interesting thoughts. Nice article Rob.
My general theory about Harvey (I am a fan and entitled to one) is that it is fatigue which is effecting his command and velocity and a cause for the hanging pitches. Instead of pushing harder to correct the problem maybe he should be backing off . It would be a shame if the fatigue led to an injury.
Thanks, Metsense! Appreciate it. It was unfortunate that our meetup didn’t work out, but maybe another time.
Could be simply fatigue. We’re in uncharted post-TJ surgery with him (considering total innings last season), right? Maybe this is the result of pushing him so hard.
“Dead arm” is acutely weakened (microscopic tears) muscles that will show itself in a dramatic drop off of pitching speed while the person is suffering from it. This would mean, for Harvey, that in the post season, his velocity would have gone down dramatically.
The healing factors (predominantly time and protein) kick in during the off season, particularly with the natural break. This is where pitchers of old reported their arms getting stronger and able to pitch more innings as they reached their late 20’s to 30.
For Harvey to be suffering from “dead arm” as suggested by his agent, it would mean that he would have had to have done damage to the healing process in the off season by either pitching regularly (not allowing the recovery) or hindering the protein uptake (lack of nutrition, heavy alcohol use, lack of sleep). His mph would be the same as when he suffered the fatigue; not less. Alcohol use and muscle recovery work against each other, even increasing estrogen levels.
I do not know the cause of Harvey’s woes. He may have health issues (overall health, not arm) that he does not want to disclose. He seemed fairly embarrassed recently when this came up. Heavy and ongoing use of antibiotics could also be taking their toll on him.
Mechanics can impact speed, and if something is off, I hope it is rectified. I simply don’t think so because he is a thinking pitcher and has likely studied video.
Whatever it is, I hope he returns to form soon. It is going to be a rough summer with the Nationals.
Interesting info about dead arm and recovery, Peter! Thanks!
It’s all very mysterious until they find the answer, which we’ll get to eventually. We might even be upset that they hadn’t caught it sooner, depending on the severity. How long do they wait until they actually back off?
Fatigue, Injury Recovery, weight gain with aging?
Rob, really nicely done. I compared some videos myself – from this year to last – and the thing that jumps out at me is that he’s landing short. Notice how upright he his in your stills. Prior to this year he had a long stride which relies more on legs and back then arm – think Tom Seaver. Throwing more upright not only takes away power but it leads to a lack of follow through and high pitches – belt high meatballs. It also makes a pitcher more susceptible to injury ad it puts extra strain on the arm – think Jake Peavy.
Very interesting, Matt. I wonder if this is something that they identified already but he simply has been having issues correcting in-game. He did seem to purposely avoid giving away too much info while answer post-game questions, which I thought was telling.
The NY Post broached the subject of night life and weight gain this morning.
Think alcohol and estrogen with pre disposed Venetia to storing body fat.
AAA might help him rediscover things.
Rather unflattering quote about being only 27.
Follow up:
I believe Matt Harvey works his butt off in training. He and Bryce Harper likely push each other during the winter work outs.
Alcohol inhibits protein uptake. This blocks muscle recovery and reparation after the microscopic tears of weight lifting.
Alcohol increases the female hormone estrogen. This has a myriad of anti-male impact upon athletes.
This is an athlete who is world class and although some athlete’s bodies were notorious for warding off alcohol and sleep deprivation from partying (Babe Ruth, Mark Messier), it is the exception and not the rule.
I think that partying has caught up with him and the lasting infection may be STD related. Even if not STD, antibiotics rip the heck out of the athletic body.
Harvey is open about NYC night life but at 27, he may find himself in Las Vegas, brooding and bewildered until someone has ‘the talk’ with him. From the quotes I have read from his parents, we should not count too much on them.
He has a short window of opportunity in life to be world class and a master at his profession. No matter what spin is upon it, he is blowing it and betraying his team mates and fans, but most of all, he is betraying his own self.
How’s that for old school?