While watching McCade Brown work his way through the first few batters in Saturday morning’s game at Rutgers, Indiana head coach Jeff Mercer turned and looked at his pitching coach to share his early assessment.
“This guy looks different,” Mercer said to Justin Parker. “You guys did a great job.”
Parker and Brown spent a chunk of last week fine-tuning the right-hander’s approach after he yielded five runs and walked five batters during an abbreviated 2.2-inning outing the previous Saturday against Iowa. A deep look at the metrics revealed to Parker that Brown’s release point had gotten inconsistent, resulting in reduced spin rates and poor command against the Hawkeyes.