I think Hunter is an exception to the Astros " car wash" They mostly take guys who have 1 or 2 very good pitches along with mediocre pitches and maximize their potential by optimizing the good and minimizing the bad. They do this via usage, patters, as well as additional development to the good pitches. They also use pitch shape and "tunnelling" to have the biggest advantage possible vs the hitter and how he sees pitches. But nothing works on everyone every time. In Brown's case his 2 seamer was a poor pitch so they had him stop throwing it. They also had him keep throwing pitches that tunnelled well to make it harder for the hitter to identify which pitch is coming. The problem came from all his tunnelled pitches moved in the same direction, limiting the advantage of any deception. Fooling the hitter still frequently resulted in quality contact. By adding the 2 seamer back in, it gave a completely different look to the hitters. Eventhough it wasn't a great quality pitch, the fact that he used it and it gave the hitter a completely different look, reduced their ability to just look and swing in a smaller area of the plate. This improved the effectiveness of his other pitches. And then he started tunneling his 2 seamer better and improving its quality with more usage. At least this is my interpretation of whatcI have read and heard. So he is the rare pitcher who was hurt by the car wash process.
Agree completely - it's just disappointing that the Astros didn't seem to be able to adjust and see those weaknesses, whereas Astros' hitters all pointed it out right away.
On a side note, I'm not familiar with how pre-arb salaries work, but it seems weird that Brown is making less money this year than he did last?? Hunter Brown | MLB Contracts & Salaries | Spotrac.com I also thought he was 1 year closer to FA than he is, so maybe there is an opportunity there if he wants to lock in some generational wealth before 2029, though it won't be cheap.
