Matt Harvey is poised to bounce back after an abysmal start to the year.
No matter how you measure it, Matt Harvey is having a terrible season for the New York Mets. Among qualified starters, he has the third highest batting average against (.323) and the third worst WPA/LI (-1.48). He has not worked more than six innings nor given up fewer than two runs in any of his 10 starts this year. He’s not missing bats (79.9% contact rate), and he’s being hit hard (27.4% line drives).
Why is he struggling so much? Many people have postulated about what ails the 2013 All-Star starter, with some pointing to a decrease in velocity as the main culprit, an argument that the data certainly backs up.