The Minnesota Twins will need to see improvement from Phil Hughes in 2017. Hughes is looking to change his approach on the mound this season.
Phil Hughes is in his fourth season with the Minnesota Twins and has struggled on the mound. He pitched four innings against minor leaguers on Tuesday and had difficulty with his fastball command. On an 0-2 count, a fastball got away from Hughes and hit Twins prospect Travis Harrison, who left the game to get X-rays.
According to the Pioneer Press, Hughes told reporters that he has been trying to work on getting his fastball inside to change the eye-level of hitters. Changing the eye-level on hitters will lead to his fastball being more successful. It also backs hitters off the plate so that Hughes can go low and away from the hitter with some off-speed pitches.
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The outing was Hughes' third of the spring. He missed the end of the 2016 season after undergoing surgery to treat thoracic outlet syndrome. Out of the 59 pitches thrown by Hughes, he threw over two dozen changeups. The changeup looks to be a pitch of focus in Spring Training. The changeup was very successful on the day, attributing to a good amount of swings and misses. As he got deeper and deeper in the outing, it looked like Hughes was becoming more comfortable with the pitch.
Hughes' current fastball is sitting in the 89-90 MPH range, with the occasional pitch reaching 91 MPH. That is down a bit from last year, where Hughes' fastball averaged 91.3 MPH. Per the Pioneer Press, Twins pitching coach Neil Allen is urging Hughes to throw more changeups this season than last year. Last season, Hughes threw his split-fingered changeup just under 3 percent of the time. That was way down from 2015, when Hughes threw the changeup 10 percent of the time and was a lot more successful.
Hughes, 30, only managed to throw 59 innings with the Twins last season. In his time on the mound, he posted a 5.95 ERA while striking out only 34 batters. Hughes' walk rate went up as well from 0.9 BB/9 in 2015 to 2.0 BB/9 last season. Hughes will have to find his control and his off-speed pitches in order to be more successful than he was last year.
Hughes will be changing his approach in the upcoming season by using more off-speed pitches. He will look to improve on a very lackluster season with the Twins. Hughes will be a name to watch as the season progresses and will be an important piece for the Twins to return to the postseason in 2017.
