Just for fun because these are all small sample sizes here and they could do a complete 180 after one more appearance, but some interesting and largely encouraging things I noticed with Brooks Baseball pitch tracking.

http://www.brooksbaseball.net/

Phil Hughes:

I wanted him out of the rotation all off season because his off-speed and breaking stuff varied from awful to non-existent. The usage of Hughes' fastball, which has brought a chorus of boos due to a lack of velocity, decreased 40% from last year. He only threw his heater 30% of the time, meanwhile he threw his changeup 26% of the time. This is a pitch that he has barely touched in a half decade. Hughes made it through the day with a good box score but too many hard hit balls. This experiment might not work, but it's a good sign.

Verdict: At minimum, encouraged by the effort to fix a glaring problem.

Kyle Gibson:

I can't summarize concisely how much I dislike Kyle Gibson's sinker. Or sinkers in general. Or the Titanic. Google my username, Gibson and sinker and the clinical definition of a mental disorder will pop up. To cut to the chase, Gibson threw 30% fewer sinkers than his average last year. He also threw 40% more sliders, one of his two good pitches, the change being the other which stayed the same.

Verdict: Hooray! Let's get rid of that silly sinker!

Michael Tonkin:

You've got to be kidding me; Michael Tonkin's sinker usage increased 70%! Seems like we found where Gibson's missing sinkers went. Tonkin has also added a cutter this year. According to the site he has never thrown one before. His slider and 4-seamer usage is way down. Last year wasn't good for him so I guess there's good reason to try new stuff. Though he still went nearly 3 innings in his one appearance this year so I guess he's still the long man for some reason.

Verdict: Ugh, fine go ahead, do it, throw that stupid pitch. Change is good, help me embrace this one. Let's all just enjoy your influx of groundballs hit to the left side of the infield.

Hector Santiago:

He has been known as a lefty who gets by on smoke, mirrors and a genie in a bottle who got lost in a checked bag when he flew to Minneapolis last year. He's always been a two pitch pitcher using a FB/changeup combo with a bad curve that he breaks out once in awhile. Well the FB usage increased while the changeup usage decreased. Hey, but he got the win!

Verdict: At this rate he'll be a 1 pitch pitcher by June.

Brandon Kintzler:

Verdict: Nope, I'm still too chaffed to talk about sinkers again.

Ervin Santana:

Um, this all looks the same.

Verdict: Duh, why mess with the one thing that went right last year?