By Chris Dial November 25, 2020
From 2012-2015 Matt Harvey was fabulous on the mound for the New York Mets. His performance in the 2015 World Series was everything a fan wants from a top hurler. He had the persona, the confidence, the dominance and the city to deserve the moniker “The Dark Knight.” It was very fun to be a Mets fan for those seasons.
In 2016, Harvey hurt his arm. Pitchers hide injuries, sometimes subconsciously, because they feel like it is a pain they have worked through before, or maybe they just slept on it wrong. So, they adjust to avoid the pain on the mound. Dizzy Dean famously, perhaps apocryphally, had a line drive hit his foot, and to pitch through that he altered his motion and injured his arm. What was Harvey trying to pitch through?
With Statcast, we can see Harvey change his throwing angle. Statcast data started in 2015, which is key because it shows when he is good.
It may not be terribly obvious without a frame of reference, but his release point for all his pitches are pretty narrow and in the same vertical line. Here’s Jacob deGrom’s 2018:
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