'It was definitely humbling.' ArdenZwelling on new BlueJays pitcher Clay Buchholz's 2018 stint in the minors and what it meant for his game:
"I did the whole minor-league thing last year and had to swallow a little bit of pride to do that. I’m glad I did it. It worked out for me in the end. It made me a better pitcher to go through that all over again," Buchholz said. "But it was just slow. The last two years have been slow in the off-season. And as a player, sometimes it’s hard to cope with that."
But that was then and this is now. Buchholz’s fastball averaged 90.8-m.p.h. last season and the hardest one he threw all year was 93.9. In a league where the average fastball is approaching 94-m.p.h., Buchholz can’t blow his heater by hitters like he once did. As he’s lost velocity, the 34-year-old has prioritized his command and sequencing, focusing on throwing his pitches with movement towards the edges of the strike zone.
It’s been an incredibly successful adjustment. The pitch generated a swing-and-miss 19 per cent of the time last season, as hitters chased just under half the cutters he threw outside the strike zone. He earned a strike with the pitch a remarkable 73 per cent of the time he threw it. Opposition batters put up only a .266 wOBA against it. Of the 22 times it was put in play for a hit, 17 were singles. A hitter hasn’t taken Buchholz’s cutter deep since 2016.
If the Blue Jays can help Buchholz locate his curveball closer to the bottom of the zone more consistently, it could become much more effective. Note the difference below in where Buchholz was locating his curveball through the first 9 seasons of his career and where he’s been locating it since .
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