An interesting note was passed along the Twitter/Blogosphere last night after Phil Hughes‘ performance in a game against the Blue Jays–Hughes allowed eight hits and three runs with no walks and seven strikeouts. Anyway, it appears that Hughes has altered the grip on his cutter:
Phil Hughes had seven strikeouts tonight, and the way he remembers it, all but one came on a modified version of his cutter. Disappointed in the pitch this spring, Hughes tweaked his cutter grip and turned the pitch into more of a slider, something slightly slower and bigger.
“It’s probably technically more slider now,” Hughes said. “But I’ll still call it a cutter because I don’t want to get in the mode of getting around it and lazy with it. If I just tell myself it’s a cutter, I’ll throw it with conviction.”
Interesting stuff, really. These are the kind of things we don’t get to see during the non-game part of Spring Training and are what I’m really fascinated by. Whenever we see something going wrong with a hitter or pitcher, we’re quick to ask what the hitting/pitching coach is doing. Here’s a case of seeing those results, and seeing them quickly.
If a slider seems familiar regarding Hughes, there’s a reason. From Jennings again:
Hughes threw a slider when he was younger, including his early years in the Yankees minor league system, but he eventually dumped the pitch and picked up the cutter. When the cutter disappointed him again last week, Hughes had Larry Rothschild work with him on finding a new cutter/slider grip. He tried a few slight modifications, found one he liked and used the pitched 25 to 30 times tonight. He threw it more than either his curveball or changeup.
I may be getting a bit ahead of myself, but I could see this as a big plus for Hughes during the regular season. Last year, his “normal” cutter got a little stale by the end of the season and it wasn’t working the way it was early on. If Hughes is able to harness this pitch while continuing to improve his curveball and changeup, he’ll make the big step we all want him to make and that he seems to be ready to make.
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3 Responses to Hughes Alters Cutter
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TIQ IQ
As I said about Nova’s new pitch, I’ll buy in when I see him use it regularly in season. It is interesting to see the fiddling that Rothschild is doing.
I think Hughes just hit the wall and got tired. He threw more innings than he had before and I think he will hold up better over the whole season this year. And I like his curveball, not sure if they think it was ineffective. A good cutter certainly can’t hurt.
I also like Nova. The main problems with the Yankees staff is depth and Burnett as the #3. Nova as #4 isn’t so bad and all the attention on Gordo Colon or Freddy Garcia as #5 is hot air. The #5 starter barely pitches in either April or October.
But I think the bullpen is going to be a real asset. Joba and Robertson have excellent ratios outside of ERA. They have some useful lefties and insurance for Mariano.
I think it was more than him “hitting a wall” orjust getting tired, I’m sure that had some to do with it but also has a lot to do with hitters making adjustments. Hughes has been spending the last 2 years falling in love with his fastball and cutter and he has consistently been wild inside of the strikezone with both and it has caused him to get hit. Developing more of a slider like break, taking some velocity off and allowing it to break away (to RHB) instead of the cutting action at 91 could certainly help this. He could end up with more of a K pitch instead of a foul ball/ground ball generater that his cutter was.
I’ll agree with Mo though, throw it in the regular season with success and we will see.