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The Blue Jays go up against 35-year-old right hander Aaron Harang today. What magic Harang used to have looks to have run out this year. After being a fine back of the rotation option for years, he has a 5.27 ERA and a 4.55 FIP that comes from a 1.52 HR/9. Although he's hardly walked anyone, he still hasn't had a K/9 above 7.00 since 2009. He makes his start against J.A. Happ who hasn't pitched since being hit with a line drive and hurting his knee in May.
Harang throws a fastball, sinker, changeup, slider, and curveball with his fastball hitting around 90 MPH. A fastball-slider combination is how he attacks right handed hitters, with his slider being Harang's best off-speed pitch. As you can see below his slider and curveball are very similar with likely a small grip change causing more downward movement on the curve:
This is where Harang will try to attack Blue Jays with his slider, and it's been a successful strategy against Jays' hitters this year:
Aaron Harang is pretty split neutral and the lineup I'd pencil in would be:
- Reyes SS
- Bautista RF
- Encarnacion DH
- Lind 1B
- Rasmus CF
- Davis RF
- Izturis 2B
- Lawrie 3B
- Arencibia C