Rich Hill
John, I'm wondering if you can comment a little bit on Hill. A little while back in your Q&A session your response on him was something to the effect that he needs to get into a different organization. I didn't ask then but I was wondering if you meant he needed a change of scenery to refresh his outlook or you were worried about how the Cubs treat pitchers.
Since that Q&A session (like it had something to do with it), Hill has been on a tear and has been on the verge of dominant. In 8 of his last 9 starts he's allowed 2 earned runs or less. The only outing he allowed more than 2 earend was in Colorado. During that stretch his line looks like this:
55.2 IP, 42 hits, 16 ER, 16 BB, 51 K (2.58 ERA)
I do worry about Dusty overworking pitchers, Hill threw 120 last night, but I am also not nearly as worried about Hill increasing his workload being 26 instead of say 21. His numbers over the last couple months are starting to resemble what he was doing in AAA. He has really resembled early Zito over this stretch with a fastball around 90 and a devastating breaking ball.
Bobby Cox had a glowing review of Hill last night:
"He's tough," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said of Hill. "He's going to be a real good one. He's a good guy to have in your rotation, that's for sure."
I'm asking specifically if you think this is his peak and can he maintain it? Can he go even a step further to the level of dominance he showed at AAA? Is this just a good stretch of work and he'll fall back to a #3-4 starter type?
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pitches and coaches
On top of Dusty Baker, John's comment may have been referring to Hill being around Cubs pitching coach, Larry Rothschild, who is noted to promote nibbling. Interesting enough, Rich Hill attributes his turnaround to Iowa coach, Alan Dunn.
by jonpyardi on Sep 12, 2006 11:29 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
Repeats...
by cooper7d7 on Sep 12, 2006 11:42 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
good point
One thing to add is that Hill does have a cutter which you could consider a 3rd pitch. I'd say the changeup has the potential of making Hill a top of the rotation guy as opposed to a 4 or 5 guy.
by jonpyardi on Sep 12, 2006 1:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs
dont forget
by jdelavalle on Sep 13, 2006 1:33 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

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