Buchholz and Hansen: Second Looks

Warmup, originally uploaded by Plutor.

If you’re craving reassurance with respect to the rough outings today from first Buchholz and then Hansen, well, you shouldn’t.

Repeat after me: it’s. their. first. outing. Against the pros, anyway.

But I was curious to see what - precisely - went wrong for the two on the day, because the box score doesn’t always tell the full story. Herewith is my quick scouter on the pair’s efforts today, which - considering that I’m completely untrained for the task - isn’t terribly valuable.

Anyway.

Buchholz

Not a terrible outing, overall, Buchholz just got some balls up in the first inning and had some balls hit just far enough away from defenders to cause problems. More:

• The NESN gun had his fastball between 88-92, and in his post-game remarks he mentioned that he sees himself sitting between 90-93 easy, with a couple extra available when he needs it.
• Four seam fastballs that dominated the first IP were frequently up, which has been a bit of a problem in his “last two bullpens.”
• Mentioned that he “might have been trying to throw too hard”
• Great separation velocity-wise with his changeup: arm action is good and the gun had them generally at 78 with an occasional 75
• Second IP was much smoother, primarily because he went to a two seam fastball that generated some quick outs on the ground
• All three pitches - fastball, curve, and change - got hit, but all three looked good at times
• First few hits came in two strike counts

Hansen

Hansen’s outing was less promising than Buchholz’, primarily because his velocity crept down but his control - particularly of the slider - did not improve. Still, if the infield behind him had managed to turn a double play his line would have looked very different. More:

• The NESN gun had Hansen’s fastball between 90-95, and his slider was fairly consistent at 83.
• Fastballs were generally thrown down in the zone, but command within it was spotty.
• Sliders were so-so on the day, with one or two good ones thrown against several way out of the zone. Remy’s characterization of the pitch was “flat”
• Clearly had difficulty throwing strikes with either the fastball or the slider
• Subtracting velocity did not necessarily improve his control: the third batter of the inning took four straight balls, which came in at 93-92-91-90
• While several of the non-strikes were borderline pitches, several - particularly after runs scored - missed by a significant margin
• Fastball showed good velocity to close out the inning (95)