Article: Liam Hendriks making final pitch for rotation spot

[Parker Hageman]

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=1475-Liam-Hendriks-making-final-pitch-for-rotation-spot

[fairweather]

Why is he afraid to throw the curve to right handed hitters? His slider is complete garbage and should be canned until further notice. I do think Liam can be decent if he changes speed but he still has no true out pitch.

[ericchri]

Why is he afraid to throw the curve to right handed hitters? His slider is complete garbage and should be canned until further notice. I do think Liam can be decent if he changes speed but he still has no true out pitch.

 

I couldn't help wondering the same thing. Obviously the movement is different such that they feel one suits the lefties or righties, but with such poor success from his slider, isn't another breaking ball he seems to have more control of going to end up more effective anyway?

[Parker Hageman]

Hendriks' issue seems to mimic that of Detroit's Rick Porcello. This spring, the Tigers wanted Porcello to refine his slider but he has since moved away from throwing that pitch and thrown his curveball more, which has been a better overall pitch in a small sample size.

 

In late February, Porcello told Jason Beck that:

 

“Right now, I’m just working on one breaking ball,” Porcello said after Wednesday’s outing, “just working on getting the command of one and establishing that, and we’ll go from there.”

 

Porcello's had a heck of a spring since embracing the curve - in 18 innings he's struck out 18 and walked none. This Fangraphs.com piece shows what that hook is like which is very similar to what we've seen out of Hendriks.

 

My advice to Hendriks would be to do something similar to Porcello and work on the curve and shelve the slider for now.

[ashbury]

Hendriks' issue seems to mimic that of Detroit's Rick Porcello. This spring, the Tigers wanted Porcello to refine his slider but he has since moved away from throwing that pitch and thrown his curveball more...

 

Jeff Jones has been Detroit's pitching coach since mid 2011, presuming this is who is meant by "the Tigers" and what they want. Maybe I expect too much of a coach to just come in and fix what's wrong with all his pitchers, but how much confidence should we have that this is the missing key for Porcello, versus whatever they have tried in the past couple of years already? 18 innings of Spring success seems like weak evidence to be trying to apply to another pitcher.

[Parker Hageman]

18 innings of Spring success seems like weak evidence to be trying to apply to another pitcher.

 

I am not suggesting because of Porcello's 18 innings of success that Hendriks' should do the same. Hendriks should do that same because of the simplification of his repertoire and the addition by subtraction of removing his slider from the arsenal.

[ashbury]

Can he succeed as a two-pitch starter, regardless of whether the curve or the slider is number two? What is the process for coaching in the minors that stamped him as ready for a trial as a starter in the majors? Seems like inmates running the asylum, with no one telling this prospect, "look, I don't care that you are getting these AA guys out, you have to develop your change-up [or whatever pitch seems called for] so you can throw it for strikes even when behind the count, or you're not moving up next season. And then you'll be stuck with looking at my ugly face telling you the same things for another year - is that what you want?"

[Jim H]

I remember several years ago when Matt Garza was in the minors, there was a mini controvercy over him not using his secondary pitches in the minors. The Twins wanted him to work on them, he felt he didn't need them to get minor league hitters out, so he threw mostly fastballs. It is interesting on how many pitches a pitcher needs to succeed in the majors. Blyleven said last night that he only had 2. Santana had 3 but usually only used 2. Silva, when he first came to the Twins, really only had one. Mariano Rivera only throws his fastball, though of course he is a reliever.

 

I think it depends. It depends on how good your pitches are. If you have a great fastball, and a good secondary pitch such as slider or curve, you can probably get by with that. Most pitchers likely need 3 pitches to succeed in the majors, if none are truly dominant.

 

I also suspect that you often learn or develop that 3rd pitch if you get to majors and find out you can't get by with 2. That is what happened to Radke, who developed his changeup after he got to the majors.