MWL notes: Harris overhauls mechanics

Lansing's Jon Harris, a 6-foot-4, 175-pound right-handed pitcher, walked off the mound before he could close out one inning of his first start back on April 9.

It was an inauspicious start for Harris, a first-round pick by the Blue Jays in the 2015 Draft (29th overall) who was coming off a 0-5 record and 6.75 ERA at Vancouver in 2015.

But since that rough outing, Harris started applying the lessons he learned in the Blue Jays organization, and Midwest League rivals are paying the price.

Harris reeled off a streak of 28 scoreless innings since his opener and now has a 3-1 record with a 2.43 ERA. His streak smacked into a wall Saturday, when the league's top-hitting team, the South Bend Cubs, got him for seven earned runs.

Toronto's Minor League pitching coordinator, Sal Fasano, said Harris has made a complete overhaul of his pitching mechanics and is living up to his ranking as the No. 4 Blue Jays prospect.

"We changed the whole delivery," Fasano said. "We changed his whole mechanics, basically, and he's embraced it. He's worked really hard to try to repeat it, and he's actually starting to see some fruits to his labor. It's a testament to how hard he works. I love his ability and willingness to make that adjustment and learn from the mistakes of last year.

"We put in what we believe are the correct parameters, which we believe are the correct parameters to put a pitcher in, which, No. 1, will hopefully create health," Fasano said. "The arm is good. He has a quick arm. He knows how to spin a ball. He had a good feel for his pitches, but getting him to a more conventional delivery, it helped him in his ability to repeat his delivery and release his arm slot. Now, with the longer stride length, higher front side, we can add a little bit of deception as well."

Harris turned down a $100,000 offer from the Blue Jays after being drafted in the 33rd round in 2012. He attended Missouri State and flourished. He was 8-2 with a 2.45 ERA and ranked 12th in the nation with 116 strikeouts. That parlayed a first-round pick by the Blue Jays and a signing bonus of nearly $2 million.

"It was one of those things where it worked out," said Harris, who hails from St. Louis. "I fell in love with Missouri State. I really wanted to have the experience of going to college and growing up. That's what I had my heart set on. Luckily, it paid off.

"I really learned to find who I was as a pitcher. Coming out of high school, I was small and scrawny. It was a tough decision. I love baseball. I've been doing it since I was 4 years old. You hear the big dollar sign. You just have to step back and think about the future. If I were to have taken that out of high school and hadn't made it, I would be 24, 25, 26 years old and starting a college career, instead of being 18 years old and starting a college career and developing. I took the chance and went to Missouri State and was lucky enough to get bigger, stronger and have success."

Maturity that developed in college played a key role in helping Harris adjust in the pros.

"I had to take a step back and think, 'What worked for me in college ... isn't working for me now, so I need to fix it,'" Harris said. "I was fortunate enough to have the coaching staff I had in Vancouver and then have the coaching staff I worked with in instructional, including Sal Fasano. I made some mechanical adjustments. Being able to talk to Paul Quantrill, Rick Langford or Darold Knowles about pitching, tendencies, how to do certain things in certain situations, being able to get the knowledge from those guys and implementing it was a tremendous resource.

"I went to instructional with an open mind about the changes. I've seen so many good athletes growing up crash and burn because they didn't take that piece of advice that could boost their game to a new level. I take whatever piece of advice that can improve my game and try it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

Fasano said Harris is on the right track.

"If he continues to pitch like this, it's going to be hard to keep him down," Fasano said. "We'd like to take our time with him and make sure that when he does go to the big leagues, he's the finished product, not just mechanically, but pitch execution, controlling the running game, all the defensive plays, learning how to read a swing ... He's in a good spot right now. His curve is going up, and we're pretty happy about it."

In brief

Upward swing: West Michigan surged to its seventh consecutive win Tuesday, rallying past Great Lakes, 5-2. The Whitecaps trailed the Loons, 2-1, after seven innings. Entering the game with a 1-15 record when trailing after seven frames, the Whitecaps pulled off the victory for their longest winning streak in two seasons, finishing May with an 18-9 record.

Tough times: Dayton has lost 10 games in a row, seven of them by two or fewer runs. It's the longest losing streak for the Dragons since an 11-game skid in 2010. In its latest loss -- a 4-3 setback in which the Lugnuts scored twice in the ninth for the win -- Dayton managed three just hits, all in the fifth inning.

Walk-off rut: Clinton suffered its third walk-off loss in four games against the Burlington Bees, and it started after the LumberKings scored a walk-off win against Wisconsin. On Friday, the LumberKings lost, 3-2, on a walk-off sacrifice fly by the Bees. On Sunday, the Bees trailed the L-Kings, 3-0, entering the ninth and had only one hit before rallying for a 4-3 walk-off win. In Monday's finale, Clinton continued the trend, dropping a 6-5 decision in 11 innings on a throwing error.