Over the weekend, George King of the NY Post wrote about the fifth starter competition between Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes, and, included in King’s article was an interesting tidbit regarding Hughes’ changeup, which he has been developing this spring. Apparently, Hughes has altered his grip of the pitch, going from a split-grip change – which, I believe, was somewhat similar to Ian Kennedy’s vulcan changeup – to a circle change. “I tweaked it a little bit,” said Hughes. “I am back to the circle change and getting a feel for it.” Hughes had gone from the circle changeup grip to the split-finger changeup grip last year, during Spring Training, so the “tweak” is not necessarily earth-shattering.
Manager Joe Girardi stated that Hughes’ changeup has looked effective during bullpen sessions, however, according to King, Girardi will wait to “reserve judgment until he sees how hitters react to it when they take their bats off the shoulders.” “You want to see the deception it has when hitters are swinging in a game,” noted Girardi in reference to the pitch. “But, I like the progress he has made and we need to keep on him and tell him to continue to use it.” Hughes hopes to reincorporate the change within his repertoire this season after rarely using it as a reliever a year ago.
From Burnett to Hughes, there’s a big changeup theme to this spring. Everyone wants to be like CC, I guess…
Photo by the AP
It’s the same old song but I think for Hughes to get anywhere near his (considerable) ceiling, that change must develop into at least an average offering. We know his fastball and curve work but neither is AJ-level; he won’t survive as a starter with just those two pitches. You’ve pushed back the starter timetable again if he can’t actually get some development time. That won’t happen if he’s in the 8th throwing 80% fastballs and 20% curves. In short, I think it does more to hinder his development than a different role, even if he provides more short-term value in the pen (and I think that’s objectionable as well). AAA to get some starts and innings, comes in either as a starter due to injury or fits in the ‘pen. JMK aka The Overshare(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
Chip Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:23 pm
This year hopefully he won’t have to be the savior in the pen so they can let him get some mop-up work in where he throws his change-up Chip(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
smurfy Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:59 pm
That may be the wise thing, JMK, but I would be disappointed, not to mention Phil. Hate to mess with a man’s motivation, when he’s got it so obviously in gear. I’m hoping it will develop to where he can work it into real games, give it some real testing and adjustment. smurfy(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES! Steve S.(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
churn to place the strange smurfy(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]
t-time won’t change me
because I can change time smurfy(Quote)
[Reply To This Comment]