Comments on: Gaining a reliever, losing a change-up

By: The counter-argument to Hughes’s changeup | River Avenue Blues

The counter-argument to Hughes’s changeup | River Avenue Blues — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:31:38 +0000

[...] Friday, just hours before Phil Hughes struck out six Tigers in two innings, Ben lamented the loss of the young righty’s changeup. Not that he really had one in the first place, but that’s the point. One key to [...]

By: Tank Foster

Tank Foster — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:27:08 +0000

I agree. Sometimes I think people make this out to be more complicated than it is. Athletics is about continuous adjustments and improvements. You pitch in the bullpen and use mostly 2 pitches. Fine. You do what you do to get batters out and help the team. Next year, or later this year, whenever they stretch him out, you go back to work on developing additional pitches, if needed.

There’s a bunch of things I don’t get. First of all, who said a starter needed more than 2 pitches? If you have two pitches of different speeds and can spot them on either side of the plate, you can get just about any batter out. Clemens was fastball/split finger. Did Clemens throw many changeups or sliders? Isn’t Halladay mainly sinker/slider?

Second, I admit all pitchers aren’t the same and maybe some need a third pitch. Still, how many times do you throw your third pitch? As for him “developing” his changeup, I think this stuff is overblown. Chances are he knows how to throw it perfectly adequately. He just has to get better at controlling it. How many times do you see an experienced pitcher go out there and utterly fail with one of his pitches, and still get through the game and pitch well.

Hughes is a good pitcher. I don’t know how good, but he’ll be fine. The idea that he’s being ruined or delayed or whatever by pitching relief this year seems really silly to me.

By: Mike HC

Mike HC — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:43:32 +0000

For me, a lot of this is nonsense. The players have to produce. If Hughes can’t recover from pitching half a year in the bullpen, then he would not have made it anyway. If Joba was irreparably damaged because of his stint in the bullpen, he also would not have made it anyway. There are always going to be obstacles to overcome and no matter what is thrown a players way within reason, they have to figure it out themselves in the end. Putting a young pitcher in the bullpen to start his career should not have a negative impact on his development.

By: Mike bk

Mike bk — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:27:13 +0000

even when he is “effective” he is only going 5-5 1/3 a start on average so that means 30 starts which means what he misses the last 3 weeks, big deal.

By: Mike bk

Mike bk — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:26:06 +0000

if they every planned to do that it should have been done 2 weeks ago.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:08:22 +0000

Is this why you rarely hear of young pitchers having a splitter in their repertoire? Did RJ and Clemens add theirs later in their career?

By: BklynJT

BklynJT — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:04:55 +0000

Eiland said himself that coming into this season, Hughes’ change-up was below average. That certainly doesn’t give me much confidence that he will develop that into an effective pitch. Hughes said himself that he doesn’t want to get beat using his 4th best pitch, so I don’t think he nor the catcher would call that pitch much in game situations. And given that the change-up is a feel pitch, I don’t really see Hughes ever developing that pitch into a usable 4th pitch. What’s another effective pitch that a righty can use to counter left handed hitters.

By: Rick in Boston

Rick in Boston — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:01:12 +0000

Oh, and Lincecum’s FB? Not much fast on average than Joba’s.

By: Rick in Boston

Rick in Boston — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:59:40 +0000

Can’t “crack” 91? You might not understand what that means. He has not once this year had an average FB below 90 MPH in any start. Yes, it’s down from last year, but it’s not as bad as you might think.

What would you rather do? Throw him out there, pitch 7 innings no matter what and blow out his arm? Lincecum is also more than a year older than Joba and is defying most scouts who thought he would blow out his elbow/shoulder in college. Lincecum is a freak of nature who might not be that good for an extended period of time – short, skinny guys who throw that hard aren’t front-line guys for many years.

By: Simon B.

Simon B. — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:57:58 +0000

http://yankees.lhblogs.com/200.....il-hughes/

“Hughes also has changed the grip on his change-up. He throws it like a splitter.”