Houston’s Hunter Brown Debuted a New Delivery in His Last Start

Hunter Brown had yet to pitch above High-A when he was first featured here at FanGraphs in April 2021. Two years removed from being drafted in the fifth round out of Wayne State University, expectations surrounding the Detroit-area native were high coming into that season, as he was ranked as the no. 2 prospect (50 FV) in the Houston Astros system. He’s since lived up to those expectations. Brown not only made his big league debut last September, he went on to log three scoreless appearances in the postseason, including one in which he blanked the Seattle Mariners in the 12th and 13th innings of an epic 1-0 Astros win that took 18 frames to complete. This season he’s been a mainstay in the Houston rotation. Over 25 starts, the hard-throwing right-hander is 10-9 with a 4.47 ERA, a 3.71 FIP, and 152 strikeouts in 133 innings.

Brown discussed a recent change to his delivery, and the current quality of his curveball, on Monday, one day before celebrating his 25th birthday.

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David Laurila: We talked pitching two years ago. Outside of being in the big leagues, what has changed since that time?

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 mean that you’re not starting out squared up to the plate, and then turning to start your delivery?

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 long before implementing it in the Tigers game did you start work on simplifying your delivery?

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 were you seeing on video prior to the adjustment?

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

Laurila: Basically, how everything 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 feel natural?

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 movement profiles impacted at all?

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 compared to when we talked previously?

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 shooting 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 said that the velocity is a little higher?

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 happy are you with how your curveball has played 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 final thoughts 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 favorite?

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 gets hit hard…

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