Article: Report From The Fort: Phil Hughes On The Backfield

[Parker Hageman]

The Minnesota Twins had a scheduled off-day on Tuesday but Phil Hughes made an appearance on Bill Smith Field over at the minor league side, throwing to an assortment of minor league hitters, including prospect Travis Harrison.

 

Harrison was the unfortunate recipient of a Hughes’ fastball to the hand. The 24-year-old right-handed hitter had called time prior to the two-strike offering only to have a fastball buzz up and in after he reset. Harrison left the field for further examination. Observers said that the top of his hand was immediately swollen.

 

Hughes said it was an accident and was apologetic afterwards.

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“Neil’s been really harping on us this spring and change eye levels and back guys off the plate and 0-2 situation I thought it would be a good idea to go up-and-in and I felt really bad about that, to be honest,” Hughes said afterwards, saying that Harrison had attended his mother’s high school in Orange County so the pair have spent time together. “I really hope he’s all right.”

 

The Twins clearly don’t want to injure any member of their organization, Hughes executed the pitch well. Because of Hughes’ elite command, hitters have often become too cozy in the batter’s box in his starts. Plus, if his velocity doesn’t rebound to pre-surgery levels, he will need to make some changes to keep opponents from sitting fastball. Therefore, the coaching staff has wanted to see Hughes move more feet.

 

“Sometimes that it’ll happen this year because Phil Hughes has a reputation of throwing a lot of strikes -- and that’s a good reputation to have -- but you also want to make sure you make people uncomfortable too while remaining aggressive,” Neil Allen said.

 

The Harrison incident was the only blip on an otherwise over-matching performance from Hughes. His fastball reached 91 according to one radar reading and his pro-grade cutter appeared to be an otherworldly pitch to some of the minor league bats. However, the real focus for Hughes was to throw a healthy dose of changeups.

 

“It was a good opportunity to throw a ton of changeups, that was kind of the plan today,” Hughes said of his strategy. “A lot of times you get in the big league spring training games you get caught up in the competitiveness of everything and trying to just get outs, but today I really did throw as many changeups as I could just to get a nice feel for it.”

 

Since at least 2010, when he was pitching for the New York Yankees, Hughes has attempted to add a changeup to his arsenal, to no avail. According to ESPN/TruMedia’s database, Hughes threw just 14 changeups in his 2014 season, 104 in 2015, and 24 in his 12 starts last year. Why the renewed emphasis on the changeup for Hughes?

 

“A lot of times if you are a guy who is really firm, like Phil throws a hard cutter, he throws a hard four-seam and two-seam fastball, he throws a hard curveball,” Allen said. “A changeup is simply going to throw their timing off like that.”

 

Overall, Hughes was satisfied with the outing.

 

"Sometimes you don’t have the luxury of doing stuff like this. Sometimes you go into these spring games, the adrenaline ticks up and you want to just get outs but here it is nice just to throw all my pitches."

 

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[Seth Stohs]

Good news on Travis Harrison. 

 

 

 

[Halsey Hall]

That is good news, it was ugly.

 

I saw one change at 74 on the gun.

[adorduan]

I don't hold out much hope for his change up.  He's quickly abandoned it every year.

[Parker Hageman]

 

That is good news, it was ugly.

 

I saw one change at 74 on the gun.

 

Man, it sounded real bad. I'm very surprised he came out unscathed. 

[beckmt]

Glad to his fastball up to 91. Now if he can gain another tick or two, he will be back to where he was. That is good news.

[Thrylos]

 

That is good news, it was ugly.

 

I saw one change at 74 on the gun.

 

74 change is pretty darn good.  Are you sure it was not the curve?

[snepp]

 

74 change is pretty darn good.  Are you sure it was not the curve?

 

I would guess curve, that's about in the velocity range he's always thrown it at.

[Parker Hageman]

 

Glad to his fastball up to 91. Now if he can gain another tick or two, he will be back to where he was. That is good news.

 

The wind was blowing in hard from center field. That probably helped his velocity.

[Dantes929]

He has a pretty good curve ball.   When he lost his velocity he got banged up pretty good and then he seemed change his style by throwing more curveballs and change ups with better results.   I always thought that if he regained his mph he could end up a better pitcher for the experience.   Here's hoping. 

[MN_ExPat]

Keep in mind it's not how slow you throw the change that makes it so effective, but rather the split between it and the fastball (as well any additional movement the pitcher can add to it such as with the circle change or 3 finger change).

 

A lot of pitching coaches (at least at the ones my son works with) usually want their pitchers to stay around 10 - 12 mph difference between the two on average.

[Parker Hageman]

 

Keep in mind it's not how slow you throw the change that makes it so effective, but rather the split between it and the fastball (as well any additional movement the pitcher can add to it such as with the circle change or 3 finger change).

 

A lot of pitching coaches (at least at the ones my son works with) usually want their pitchers to stay around 10 - 12 mph difference between the two on average.

 

Well actually successful changeups are found to be more about movement than they are about speed differential...

 

http://twinsdaily.com/topic/23603-inside-the-game/?p=533242

 

Here's former pitcher and current Red Sox pitching analyst Brian Bannister on the subject:

 

“The name of the pitch is almost deceiving,” Bannister said. “What I spent years trying to do was take more speed off it. We always watched James Shields, Felix Hernandez, and their changeups didn’t look like anybody else’s. Everybody was telling us, ‘Hold this circle change grip and just throw it slower.’ These guys, their ball is going straight down. They’re actually manipulating it. Those were the ‘Aha’ movements. My last year, in 2009, my ground-ball percentage went up before I got hurt like 10 percent that year, and it was purely because I’d figured out how to make my changeup move. Greinke is still using that today.”

 

 

Watching Hughes' changeup behind home plate yesterday, you could definitely see decent movement. It seemed like more than a show-me pitch.