Scouting report on Milwaukee Brewers LHP Josh Hader

Scouting Report

Size/Delivery/Control

Size – Hader is listed at 6’3″ tall and 185 pounds. I’d wager he’s likely 15-30 pounds heavier now, but he’s still built long and lean with longer-than-usual arms and legs.

Delivery – Hader is most known for his unique arm angle, but he has an interesting delivery to get to that angle.

Hader starts with a fairly traditional leg kick up to his waist, but then he twists his upper body hard toward second base, with his right hip pointed nearly right at first base before he begins pushing toward home.

His peak point of his delivery forces a hard turn of his hips toward the plate as he comes to home, generating a ton of torque, which in turn generates plenty of movement and velocity on his pitches.

That explosive drive to the plate does lead to some issues with his landing foot not hitting consistently, as he’ll often overshoot a direct line to the plate and end up a touch toward third base, leaving his body opened up and putting extra stress on his arm to generate movement and velocity.

The long hold in his delivery away from the plate does generate some deception, as does the lower arm slot Hader employs. He comes from an arm slot that is not a true side arm, but definitely below 3/4. Some have classified the slot as “low 3/4”, but he would be about as low a “low 3/4” delivery that I’ve noted in a starting pitcher.

Control (45) – Hader’s long arms and legs along with his odd arm angle have always made control an issue. His slider does get tremendous movement, so while he sometimes features better command on that pitch, he still struggles with the control because of the movement he gets due to his arm slot with the pitch.

I was impressed with how consistent Hader is with his arm slot, seemingly always from the same slot, though his leg positioning did cause different stress on that slot, which could flatten out the ball.

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Pitches

Fastball (65) – Hader works with a fastball that ranges from 93-97 MPH. He has touched 99 MPH in short stints and there are reports of triple digits in pure velocity. Working in short stints, the fastball would certainly sit more 95-98 and probably lean over that triple-digit number.

I was impressed with the raw movement on the pitch, especially when looking back at Hader’s AA fastballs. He tends to get glove-side movement on the pitch, with some wicked movement that can bury the ball at a righty’s feet low in the zone or dance away from a lefty up in the zone.

Change Up (45) – While Hader can flash a plus change in rare moments, he typically has a below-average feel for the pitch, primarily due to his arm slot. One of the difficulties with his arm slot is being able to get on top of a change in order to get the same action as a fastball without the same velocity. The difficulty in throwing a change is why so many guys from the arm slot that Hader employs end up in the bullpen.

Slider (60) – Hader’s slider is quite impressive, and if he could keep the movement of the pitch within the zone, it’d be a 65 or even a 70 pitch. As it is, Hader works with a wipe-out slider that he can bury from left to right.

From my viewing, he tended to bury the pitch in the middle of the plate to lefties and at the toes of righties.

MLB Player Comp

The common comparison for Hader actually makes some sense. While it sounds lazy just due to arm slot, Chris Sale is a legit comparison with Hader.

Sale was called up to pitch as a reliever initially with the White Sox and threw at the top end as Hader has shown in short stints in velocity. However, Sale has been able to turn over his change well, which has allowed him to work as a starter.

Sale also works primarily with a two-seam fastball, which gives him unique movement from the low 3/4 arm slot. I would imagine that Hader will have a lot of work to get to the level of Sale as a starter, but the work Sale did as a reliever for the White Sox could be expected from Hader.

Next: Mock Draft 6.1

Questions about what role Hader would have initially were answered quickly by Milwaukee Brewers GM David Stearns (per the Brewers MLB.com beat writer, if you’re not familiar with who Adam McCalvy is!):

I think that will be a wise way to bring Hader into the big leagues, and it’s interesting that his role is the way the White Sox initially introduced Chris Sale into the big leagues. It could be a very interesting thing to see whether he does transition back to the rotation or finds a permanent home in the bullpen, where he could be absolutely dominant.