The start to the 2017 season has been filled with surprises and disappointments for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but perhaps there has been no bigger surprise on the roster than the productive first month of the season that Josh Harrison has put up.
Truth be told I have never been much of a Harrison guy so writing a positive column about Harrison is new to me.
But he deserves it with a very good start to the season that has seen him put up a .308/.385/.527 slash line, which if he keeps it up, would surpass his only real productive season in the majors which saw Harrison make the All-Star team in 2014.
Even during that season I kept waiting for Harrison to come back to earth. This guy is really not that good. He’s just on a hot streak I remember writing several times. But Harrison continued his surge and turned out to be a productive player.
Then came the contract extension that I cringed at and two very disappointing seasons that saw Harrison put up a .717 OPS in 2015, followed by a terrible .699 OPS last season.
Trade rumors surfaced in the offseason and I couldn’t wait for the Bucs to pull the trigger on a Harrison deal, not only to get his contract off the books, but his declining numbers along with his free swinging ways just weren’t a fit in this Pirates lineup.
I always loved the hustle that Harrison provided and he is a great guy to talk to, but at the end of the day he simply wasn’t producing and the organization seemed better off finding a replacement elsewhere.
Harrison has done his part this season to make myself, and others like me, eat my words as he has been very good at the top of the Pirates lineup.
What has changed is the past couple of seasons?
Closed 2016 Strong
The idea of moving Harrison to the top of the order last season seemed terrible. Especially since he was swinging at everything, no matter where it was pitched.
He hit .283 with 19 steals last season, but posted a lousy .311 OBP. No way would I want that guy hitting at the top of the order.
But once Clint Hurdle moved Harrison to the leadoff spot, something clicked as he hit .326 with 19 runs and 17 RBIs over his final 34 games.
It’s hard for a hitter to carry success from one season to the next. Heck, it’s hard for most guys to carry things over from game to game. But whatever Harrison changed in his approach towards the end of last season worked and he has carried it over to a hot start this season.
Hard Contact
Harrison’s slugging percentage dipped 100 points from 2014 to 2015 and he saw a slight drop last season as well.
But this season he is slugging a whopping .527, which dwarfs his career high mark of .490 set in that magical 2014 season. Harrison likely won’t be able to sustain that number, but if he keeps making hard contact he could rival his 2014 numbers.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Truth be told I have never been much of a Harrison guy so writing a positive column about Harrison is new to me.[/perfectpullquote]The biggest difference is Harrison is pulling the ball with authority. That hasn’t happened in the past couple of seasons.
He still is making solid contact the other way when he needs to but Harrison has been able to turn on fastballs and make pitchers pay.
He’s pulling the ball 55 percent of the time, which is way higher that his 41 percent career average. It’s not just pulling the ball though. When he does, he is hitting it with authority.
He’s not rolling over on balls and beating them into the ground. His ground ball percentage has dropped dramatically from 44.3 percent last season down to 35.1 percent this season. That’s a great improvement.
Adding onto that, Harrison is hitting the ball in the air more as well as his fly ball rate has risen from 36.3 percent to 49.4 percent. His power has been non-existent for the past couple of seasons, but Harrison has five homers already this season.
That’s a big reason why.
Better Decisions at the Plate
Harrison is still going to chase pitches.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]But once Clint Hurdle moved Harrison to the leadoff spot, something clicked as he hit .326[/perfectpullquote]He still swings at one out of every three pitches outside the zone and swings the bat at every other pitch, but he has done a better job in those areas.
His chase percentage is at 32.1 percent, but he’s cut that down from 37.3 percent last season. Harrison’s swing percentage has dropped from 54.2 percent down to 50 percent as well.
While those don’t seem like huge improvements, they have helped Harrison cut his strike out rate down to 13.5 percent after back-to-back seasons of 15.8 and 14.6 percent. His walk rate has also slightly risen up to 4.8 percent, which is up from a woeful 3.8 percent a year ago.
All of this has added up to a very solid start of the season for Harrison, one the Pirates needed desperately with all of the injuries and other factors keeping other people out of the lineup at the moment.
Who knows if he can keep up this pace, but if he can he better keep his colander open in the middle of July.
Photo Credit: Joe Sargent/MLB Photos via Getty Images
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