I think we’ve all seen Hughes struggle with his pitch selection. It seemed like the first couple of starts (especially the one that he pitched well in) he tried to get through the lineup with his fastball and curveball as much as possible and then tried to mix in the change the third time through to help himself out, which is not a bad strategy at all. Then it seemed like the 2 pitch early on strategy betrayed him, and now we’re seeing the fastball, 12-6 curve and 10-4 slurve (I like how he used to set a couple of guys up, although it seems like that slurve is not a plus pitch yet as it was easy for guys like Thome and Dye to lay off, as opposed to the 12-6 curve which buckles knees with regularity.)

So maybe the problem (in a relative sense of the word) is the strategy, which somewhat implicate Posada. I’m not saying Posada is doing something wrong, but perhaps it’s just an evolving process for the two of them to figure out what’s the best way to match up Hughes stuff and the hitter’s weaknesses to get him through the line up 3 times. Maybe Hughes and Molina would work better together?

I love the statistical breakdowns on Was Watching. They are always very insightful while remaining understandable. Your work inspired me to do a little analysis of my own on my blog, http://www.bigapplesports.net. It’s a breakdown of Ross Ohlendorf, and how he tends to struggle after his first inning of work. Check it out:

http://bigapplesports.net/2008/04/25/questioning-ohlendorf-as-the-long-man/

I would like to see a comparison of his pitch counts from this season and last season. We know that they have been high this season (I think they said 20 pitches/IP), so he may be wearing himself out early in games.