Dan Haren - Pitching Style

Pitching Style

Haren throws an 88–91 mph fastball, an 88–91 mph two-seam fastball, a sharp split-finger fastball (83–86), and a spike curve (76–79). Haren has also added and relied heavily upon a 84–87 mph cutter, which he added in 2008 and has credited with rejuvenating his career. The cutter makes up more than half of his pitch selection to right-handed hitters, with the two-seamer and occasional splitter filling up most of the rest. Against lefties, Haren mixes all of his pitches but uses his two-seamer the most. His curveball is a change-of-pace pitch, and not a main weapon; he does not throw it much to right-handers or in 2-strike counts. By contrast, he throws about half of his splitters with two strikes.

Haren is also known for exceptional control. His career strikeout-to-walk ratio is above 4 for his career. As of May 2012, he is the active leader in that category.

Haren usually has a slow pitching delivery, highlighted by a slight pause in the middle of his windup, that he speeds up with runners on base. His pitching style is often dubbed a "chess match" by reporters and announcers (particularly Daron Sutton and Mark Grace of the Diamondbacks announce team) due to his ability to change speeds and throw almost any pitch in any count (and often throws pitches in succession, i.e., four straight breaking balls), often going against scouting reports, making it particularly hard to hit him.