Ben Brown “crushes” mouth tape.

His diet is more akin to what people were eating “200 years ago.”

He has a little notebook filled with advice and interesting tidbits he’s collected from teammates throughout his journey.

And he has the most effective curveball in baseball.

Brown is certainly an intriguing figure on this Cubs team, as the rookie is enjoying a breakout campaign.

In Milwaukee last week, he no-hit the Brewers for 7 innings. After that start, he owned the league lead in strikeouts coming on a curveball this season with 35.

A big reason why Brown’s curveball is successful is because he throws it hard, averaging 86.8 mph on the pitch. That’s closer to the velocity many pitchers throw their slider at.

“I say this a lot – hitters don’t like things they don’t see,” Craig Counsell said. “This is a pitch with the characteristics of a curveball and some of the velocity of some guys’ slider, which kinda moves a little more east-west.

“And that’s a pitch that not many other guys throw. They don’t throw a curveball at that velocity and that makes it difficult for hitters to react to it and to see it and to calibrate to it. And it’s one of the things that makes Ben unique for sure.”

Even after a tough outing Sunday against the Reds – 5 runs in 5 innings – Brown still carries a 3.33 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in his first MLB season. He has 61 strikeouts against only 18 walks in 51.1 innings.

“He’s been great,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said. “Really appreciate his competitiveness. When he’s out there, you really get the feeling he’s attacking guys. There’s a time for tinkering and pitch shapes and there’s a time for attacking hitters and he goes out there and attacks.

“I feel like he’s shown real composure in big spots and his ability to make starts and to pitch out of the bullpen has been really impressive. He’s really helped us.”

Earlier this season, Craig Counsell called Ben Brown and Hayden Wesneski the “glue” of the Cubs pitching staff because of their ability to navigate between multiple roles.

Brown came up when Justin Steele was hurt on Opening Day and has remained in the big leagues, even as his role has changed.

He came out of the bullpen for his first 2 outings, then made a pair of starts, went back to the bullpen for 2 more games, then started again for 2 games.

In early May, he was shifted back to the bullpen for a couple weeks and when Kyle Hendricks’ struggles continued, the Cubs swapped Brown and Hendricks on the pitching staff.

Brown believes his experience pitching as a reliever has helped him find success in the big leagues even as a starter.

“There’s no taking pitching off out of the bullpen,” Brown said on the latest Cubs Weekly Podcast. “There’s no taking a hitter off.”

Brown admitted that in the minor leagues, sometimes it can be easy to take a hitter off or lose focus from a gameplan.

But in the majors, the lineups are tough from 1 through 9.

“As a reliever in the big leagues, there’s so much pressure and there needs to be so much intent on every single pitch,” Brown said. “And carrying that over from a reliever mentality to the starter for me is a lot easier than going from a starter to reliever.

“I’m really grateful for the lessons I’m learning this year, especially in the bullpen. It’s a great group of guys out there and you get to just hang out with them and learn from them. It’s a cool environment.”

Brown named several teammates within the Cubs organization that have played a major role in his development over the last couple of seasons.

In Triple-A Iowa last year, it was Tyler Duffey and Shane Greene – a pair of veterans who have had extensive big-league careers as relievers. Brown credited that duo with helping him find the right mindset, especially returning from an oblique injury last year.

“They reminded me that everybody’s timetable is different,” Brown said. “I told Shane my dream coming through the minor leagues was to make my debut before turning 24. And that didn’t happen. When I told that to Shane and Tyler, they got mad at me.

“They were like, ‘dude, are you freaking serious? That’s ridiculous!’ Shane said he was in A-ball or something at 24. The lessons [Greene] told me when it came to executing pitches and coming out of the bullpen and even coming out for a start, what your checklist has to be.

“I still carry that with me in a little notepad from what he told me last year. It was like an encyclopedia – whatever he would say, I would just write it down. He had so many valuable lessons.”

Even in the big leagues, Brown still carries the notebook around with him at times and jots down advice he’s received from other veterans.

He calls Mark Leiter Jr. a “big brother” and has learned from guys like Leiter and Drew Smyly who have spent a lot of time in their careers both in the rotation and in the bullpen.

And he soaks in whatever he can from Kyle Hendricks, who has one of the most decorated careers of any Cubs pitcher ever.

“We literally have one of the best pitchers – in my opinion – from the last decade on the roster right now,” Brown said. “His influence is just unbelievable and what he brings to the table. His talent is unbelievable.

“Having Kyle literally a couple lockers down from you and being able to ask him questions about things and watching him go about his business. You don’t even need to ask him questions – you literally just watch Kyle go about his routine and it’s the most impressive thing you’re gonna see all week.”

A big question surrounding Brown this season is his workload.

Due to the oblique injury, he only threw 92.2 innings last year and his career high is 104 innings in 2022.

The Cubs haven’t shared an exact number of innings as a limit for Brown this year but he is already nearly halfway to his career high and 2/3 of the season remains on the schedule – plus any potential playoff run.

He may top out somewhere around the 120-130 inning mark which means he may ultimately move back to the bullpen at some point this year.

Brown understands the need for caution and appreciates that the team is focused on the big picture. But he wants the ball as much as he can and he feels like he now has a good handle on what it takes to keep himself healthy.

Brown had Tommy John surgery in 2019 and has dealt with other injuries throughout his career.

In an effort to stay healthy, he changed up a few things off the field. He stopped lifting weights so much and got himself back in better baseball shape.

He also doesn’t eat any processed foods out of a package, exclusively consuming whole foods. He finds the local grocery stores to go shopping in whatever city the Cubs travel to.

One of the main areas Brown worked to improve was his sleep – including wearing Hostage Tape at night to cover his mouth. He started doing that a couple years ago to retrain his nose to breathe better at night.

“I crush some mouth tape,” Brown said on the Cubs Weekly Podcast. “I’m pretty serious with the sleep. I used to have some really weird sleep issues and I used to get hurt a bunch, too.

“Sleep was probably the first thing I started to really dominate – getting really good at sleeping. My diet’s pretty weird and funky. I’m always challenging the system. I’m very old school.”