Rich Harden Ptichf/x by Heater Fantasy Baseball Magazine

Rich Harden (pictured 2005 Artifacts baseball card) has bounced back from a month on the DL this year and 3 injury riddled season to dominate major league hitting. Harden’s recent trade to the contending Cubs helps to intensify the NL Central’s intrigue this season.

Fantasy baseball magazine Heater takes a look at Harden’s pitches with the help of the Pitchf/x chart. While Rich Harden’s fastball is somewhat pedestrian at only 92 MPH it has 3.5 inches of vertical movement and significant horizontal movement as shown in red. The blue shows his “change up” which is really a split finger/slider type thing. At 85 it also has substantial movement, as shown in blue.

Harden’s exceptional movement makes it very tough for big league ball players to get solid wood on the ball which helps to account for his 102 Ks in only 82+ innings. The icing on top is that he credits throwing his change up more with helping him to keep his arm healthy. The Cubs and Brewers are going to be fun to watch!

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