C’s right-hander knows his stuff
FIRST-ROUND PICK: Jon Harris, a ‘21-year-old little kid,’ has four pitches he can throw for strikes
Jon Harris was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round, received $1.94 million as a signing bonus on his first contract and was assigned to the Vancouver Canadians to kick off his pro career.
Where’s he going? Not to Disneyland. He may watch a Disney movie, though.
“I’m a 21-year-old little kid,” says Harris, the St. Louis native who is slated to start the C’s home opener at the refurbished Nat Bailey Friday against the Hillsboro Hops.
“I’ve got my Netflix account and if Pocahontas or Aladdin or Dumbo is on, chances are I’m watching. My favourite movies growing up were probably Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo.
“I think everybody has that little kid in them. I like to let mine out. It’s just to mellow myself out, to get away from baseball and get away from life in general.”
That’s his inner child. There’s also seemingly a 28-year-old veteran pitcher in there, too, that shows up for action on game days.
The book on Harris, a right-handed Missouri State University Bears product, is that he doesn’t just rear back and fire away, like some of the young gunslingers we’ve seen at the Nat over the years. Harris throws four different pitches for strikes. He tries to move the ball around. Location is key for him.
Ask him about the pitchers he looks up to and he points first to those old Atlanta Braves staffs led by Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine. Those were guise and guile guys.
Harris can touch 95 m.p.h. now with his fastball. That’s enough to get guys flailing away, particularly at this Short Season Single A level. He sits comfortably at 91-93 m.p.h. late into games.
He’s found that level in the past couple of years as his body has started to fill out. He had trouble keeping his velocity into the middle or later innings prior to that.
That’s a significant part of the story. Harris couldn’t overpower guys when he was younger. He had to know what he was doing. And the Blue Jays, for one, thought he did it well enough that they drafted him initially out of high school, picking him in the 33rd round in 2012.
Harris, who now checks in at 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds, was 30 pounds lighter then, according to Missouri State pitching coach Paul Evans.
Harris contends he didn’t give much consideration to turning pro in 2012, deciding instead on Missouri State.
“Once I started playing really competitive baseball, I knew that I needed to start pitching effectively rather just pitching,” explains Harris, who also has a slider, a curveball and a change-up in his repertoire these days.
“I knew that I had pitch to contact at times. I knew that I had to limit my pitch count so I could pitch into the seventh, eighth inning every game.”
Don’t expect him to pitch into the seventh inning too often with Vancouver unless he’s come into the game out of the bullpen in the sixth. He will be on a strict pitch count.
Toronto is going to be very protective of its investment, especially considering Harris has already thrown 103 innings for Missouri State this season. He went 8-2 there with a 2.45 earned run average, to go with 116 strikeouts and 36 walks.
For comparison, the Blue Jays made Marcus Stroman, a righty out of Duke University, the 22nd overall pick in 2012. They gave him a $1.8-million signing bonus.
Stroman, then 21 years old, had pitched 98 innings that season for Duke. He was assigned to Vancouver to start pro action and threw 111/3 innings in seven appearances, all out of the bullpen, before being promoted to Double A New Hampshire.
“Do I have a timeline of when I want to get to the majors or an idea where I want to finish this season? I’m not thinking that far ahead,” Harris said.
“I get the home opener. Then five days later, I get another start. I just want to keep doing what I’ve been doing.
“If the Blue Jays want to call me up to another level, that’s up to the head office. That’s their choice. All I can control is trying to get outs and help this ball club win.”