It would be easy to take a quick look at Jack Hartman, the Pittsburgh Pirates fourth round pick from 2020, and assume he was just another college senior signed to help save signing bonus money towards other players.
As he works his way back from Tommy John surgery, it is starting to look like there may be more to him than that.
Hartman didn’t have the most pitching experience, despite being a college senior. He didn’t switch to the mound and focus on pitching until later in his college career and only logged 33 2/3 innings during his time at Appalachian State.
He put up some good strikeout numbers there, with a 12.83 K/9 mark, but also really struggled with his control. Hartman walk 6.95 batters-per-nine-innings in college, a number he’s going to have to improve at the pro level.
After missing the 2021 season after Tommy John surgery, Hartman has started to be worked back into the mix with the Bradenton Marauders, and while it’s early, has shown some of that stuff that allowed him to rack up 48 strikeouts in 33 2/3 innings in college.
Now making his way back with Bradenton in 2022, Hartman has been eased back in, pitching in four games so far and logging 3 2/3 innings.
His fastball has sat anywhere between 93-98 mph and has averaged 96.07 in his outings. He’s relied heavily on the pitch, throwing it 64.5% of the time. On a previous update, you got a sense he relied on analytics, and it shows, as only three pitchers in the majors average more spin on their fastball than Hartman does.
Another pitch that has been sprinkled in is a cutter (according to Baseball Savant), in which he has thrown a total of four times, but each time has been very noticeable.
The first three pitches of this video are all cutters, and you can see all have considerable break on them. In fact, the ones shown average 30.6-inches of vertical break and nine inches of horizontal. They also averaged 2626-rpm and one even hit 94-mph.
Jack Hartman has made four appearances out of the bullpen at this point, coming back from Tommy John. The stuff is there it'll just take some time. The first 3 pitches here are cutters, one at 94 mph. The rest fastballs that he gets insane spin on. #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/hUdLWImTTY
— Anthony Murphy (@__Murphy88) June 11, 2022
Hartman also throws a curveball and slider that he is just starting to incorporate into his repertoire, especially the later. The curve he’s thrown 20% of the time, has gotten a whiff rate of 50% and an average spin rate of 2583.5-rpm.
You can see the effectiveness of the pitch in this video here.
Hartman's curveball has also been good, although he has mainly focused on the fastball instead so far. Here you can see some of the break on the pitch. As far as spin rate goes, he's another Bradenton guy that really slings it. #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/ULGOSjzrZS
— Anthony Murphy (@__Murphy88) June 11, 2022
The Pirates will obviously be cautious with Hartman in his first season back, but he has the upper 90s fastball, and a mix of secondary pitches that could allow him to move fast once unleashed. It will come down to staying healthy and improving on his control.