Last season, Mike N. wrote this very nice post asking if Phil Hughes needed a changeup. The idea was to send him to Scranton and let him start and work on the change there. At the time Mike was skeptical because this would have messed things up with what had turned into a pretty dominating bullpen and that Phil already had three pitches working--the fastball, the cutter, and his curve. I agreed in the comments and suggested that he wait until after the season to work on it. It seems the Yankees went with the same plan.The Yankees are urging Hughes to work on his changeup, which will be a focal point of the spring. He said he threw 12 on Friday, most of which he was pleased with, and will integrate them into his regular repertory when games start.
“When you’re developing a pitch, you have to pick your time to use it,” Girardi said. “This is the time to work on it a lot and see if we can continue to improve it. You want to put a thought into a hitter’s head. You’re just not going to see two pitches. You’re going to see three or four from me and you don’t know what I’m going to throw at any time. If he can do that, it makes him better.”
Without a good changeup it won't be the end of the world--Mike points that out nicely in the linked post above--but if he can develop a good one it will certainly help him if and when the Yankees decide to put him back in the rotation.
