Familiar flaw plagued Hunter Brown in latest start, but Astros fans shouldn’t panic

Hunter Brown's emergence this season as one of the best pitchers in baseball has been truly delightful for Houston Astros fans. Everything seems to be clicking in 2025, and he's now among the favorites for this year's AL Cy Young. Well, almost everything is clicking.

Something that's held Brown back — other than fatigue issues early in his career — was his command. Oftentimes Brown would miss his spots and either walk too many batters or find himself essentially throwing batting practice to the opposition which led to home runs.

Unfortunately, missing the strike zone is an issue that popped up in Brown's most recent start against the Tampa Bay Rays. Regression is not something Astros fans want to see, and they shouldn't worry, at least not yet.

Hunter Brown's recent walk issues shouldn't concern Astros fans (yet)

Pointing out a pitcher's lone flaw in a start when he threw six scoreless innings is the definition of nitpicking, but in Brown's first six starts of he only walked seven batters over 37 innings of work. In his last six starts, that walk rate has almost doubled with 13 in 36.2 innings pitched.

In previous years, this would have been a recipe for disaster. Back then, Brown wasn't missing bats as much and was surrendering more hard contact. However, the improvement in Brown's raw stuff seems to have allowed him to overcome this issue.

Even when he has walked more batters, he's still been averaging better than six innings per start and he isn't missing over the plate often. If you are going to miss your spots, it's better to miss out of the zone rather than over the plate; especially with his ability to get hitters to chase.

For the moment, this feels more like hitters adjusting their approach against Brown than actual regression. Hitters know that swinging the bat against him early is exactly what he wants them to do, so they will try to work deep counts, sit on one pitch, or draw walks. It's on Brown to adjust accordingly and take that next step. The odds are good that he'll do so and continue marching towards a permanent place amongst MLB's elite arms.

If his issues with walks get worse or even persist in the coming weeks, that could be cause for concern; especially if he starts leaving the ball over the plate. No one wants to see the version of Brown that was giving up homers in seemingly every start.

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