The
Pirates surprised everyone last season coming from nowhere to make the
playoffs. Even with an early
departure from the playoffs the Pirates turned some heads and raised the
expectations of the team. 2014 the
team has not failed to meet expectations but they don’t seem playoff bound
either. The good thing to come of
this is the raise of a new player that could help the Pirates in the coming
years if he can keep up what he’s doing.
Today we take a look at utility infielder Josh Harrison and see how a
player that has a career .311 OBP turned into this teams saving grace.
Batting
|
|
BB%
|
K%
|
AVG
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
OPS
|
ISO
|
BABIP
|
wOBA
|
wRC+
|
WAR
|
|
2014
|
4.5%
|
14.9%
|
.315
|
.348
|
.513
|
.860
|
.198
|
.349
|
.374
|
142
|
4.4
|
|
2013
|
2.1%
|
10.5%
|
.250
|
.290
|
.409
|
.699
|
.159
|
.253
|
.307
|
96
|
0.1
|
|
Career
|
3.5%
|
13.5%
|
.279
|
.311
|
.432
|
.744
|
.153
|
.308
|
.324
|
106
|
5.6
|
|
NL
|
7.6%
|
20.9%
|
.249
|
.312
|
.384
|
.696
|
.134
|
.299
|
.308
|
93
|
1.4
|
Looking
at the numbers there are reasons to be very skeptical. If we were to take out this seasons
totals his career lines are .250/.282/.367 a very underwhelming slash line and
also very typical for a guy like Harrison. Prior to this season the Pirates utilized him as a utility
player. According to the Bill
James Handbook he’s played 2B 11 times, 3B-7, SS-4, LF-1, RF-14, PH-30 and PR-7
times last year; no set position and very typical of a UTIL guy. As for this season he’s defiantly
having a breakout season with a strong slash line and hitting for some very
good power with 53 XBH. In fact
Harrison’s 13 HR’s this seasons makes up 65% of the HR’s in his career. The one good thing that can be said is
the low K% is actually legit. In
fact this years 14.9% is his career worst K% and it’s still lower than the
league average by almost 5%.
Batted Ball
|
|
LD%
|
GB%
|
FB%
|
HR/FB
|
GB/FB
|
IFH%
|
BUH%
|
|
2014
|
23.8%
|
37.0%
|
39.2%
|
9.1%
|
0.94
|
11.9%
|
20.0%
|
|
2013
|
18.7%
|
46.7%
|
34.7%
|
11.5%
|
1.35
|
0.0%
|
20.0%
|
|
Career
|
21.6%
|
39.4%
|
39.0%
|
6.3%
|
1.01
|
8.7%
|
25.8%
|
|
NL
|
20.7%
|
45.6%
|
33.7%
|
9.7%
|
1.35
|
6.2%
|
20.8%
|
When
compared to last year there seems to be a very sharp difference with the type
of contact that Harrison is getting.
More line drives and less groundballs do potentially mean harder hits
and more solid contact. This isn’t
always the case but it does lead to a good argument for it. For Harrison it seems to be the reason
for his increased level of offense and, more importantly, his power. As we stated Harrison has 53 XBH’s this
year and this is more than his pervious seasons in the major combined. In 2011-13 Harrison combined for a 39
XBH’s and this means that 57% of Harrisons XBH’s have come this season alone. Harrison hasn’t hit at these types of
levels in terms of GB/FB since 2012 where he didn’t really hit for much
power. This could be a sign of
improvement for Harrison but we may need to see another year of this before we
can start saying it’s a trend.
Plate Discipline
|
|
O-Swing
|
Z-Swing
|
Swing
|
O-Contact
|
Z-Contact
|
Contact
|
F-Strike
|
SwStr
|
|
2014
|
39.7%
|
67.7%
|
53.0%
|
73.1%
|
86.3%
|
81.2%
|
60.4%
|
9.8%
|
|
2013
|
39.6%
|
69.2%
|
54.2%
|
81.4%
|
87.4%
|
85.2%
|
65.3%
|
8.0%
|
|
Career
|
38.7%
|
67.3%
|
52.5%
|
75.6%
|
87.5%
|
83.0%
|
60.9%
|
8.8%
|
|
NL
|
31.7%
|
66.1%
|
47.1%
|
65.0%
|
86.9%
|
78.8%
|
60.9%
|
9.8%
|
It
shouldn’t really be that big of a surprise that Harrison is a free swinger
considering his pathetically low BB%.
As we’ve seen proven time and time again a high BB% isn’t necessity but
free swingers tend to be a little streaky. As long as a player is making contact at a solid rate, as
Harrison is, you can forgive the low BB% and high swing rate. Harrison is a very solid contact player
but he does swing a lot at pitches outside the zone while not making a lot of
contact on those pitches. Overall
Harrison is about average when it comes to the amount of contact even if he
does swing at pitches outside the zone a little too often.
Josh
Harrison is a great story for the season.
A player that has a career as a UTIL player then given his first chance
to start and he runs away with it.
While we see he is a good contact hitter with a decent K% the power doesn’t
seem to be legit. Moving forward I
can see Harrison being a .280/.325/.398 player and as a 2B with good defensive
skills that could land him a starting role with the Pirates.
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