So far is seems that way.
Keith Law responded to a question in his chat yesterday, asking whether or not Buchholz’s Groundball percentage is real or not.
Law’s response:
“I only saw one outing but I could believe it. His arm slot was a little lower and his fastball had more life than I’d seen in the past (and it was harder – 92-96).”
Great sign if one is a Red Sox fan. Now, we see the action on that fastball, so it is nothing new to us. But hearing it confirmed from a scout is always a good sign, and an indication that what we see is real.
Currently his groundball rate, is a rate of 60 percent. Really, really high. That number probably won’t be sustained. But a definite improved groundball rate most likely will.
The concerning thing is that his K/9 is at only 5.57. And his walks are right behind that at 5.29 BB/9. But we know he has the stuff to get the K’s. But does he have the control to limit the walks? That we will need to see.
If you’ve watched his past two starts, Buchholz has really made some nice strides toward becoming a better pitcher. The ball has been put on the ground, and even though he hasn’t been racking up K’s, I am confident that those will come with time.
And that newfound ability to induce ground balls…gotta like it.
5 Comments to “Buchholz a groundball pitcher?”
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J.D. Drew
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I was really skeptical at first but he looks like he’s improving his approach and I think Martinez has really helped his mental makeup, he seemed a lot more confident his last two starts with Victor behind the plate. If he’s getting more movement on his fastball it’s a very good sign, one of his big weaknesses was a lack of movement on that pitch which resulted in some mammoth bombs. We’ll see how these trends hold up.
He could just be gaining comfort because he is tallying starts though. Maybe the same thing happens if Tek is behind the plate instead of Martinez the past two starts. I really don’t know. Difficult to evaluate.
One thing I’ve noticed is that with the lower arm slot Buchholz has lost some movement on his curveball. I was just watching the video of his no-hitter and his curve has a ridiculous amount of break on it. I think part of the reason his K’s are down is because that pitch isn’t as effective right now as it has been in the past.
He has been throwing the slider more than the curve, but it’s still a good pitch. I’ll take a little less drop if it means more fastball movement. His curve was breaking huge last year but he was getting demolished because the fastball was too straight
Yeah there’s no question the curveball has less break than in that no hitter. I remember the final strike was a crazy looping curve that we don’t quite see now.