Update #2: Reports are getting worse. Looks like the season may be over for Hill.
Update #1: Reports on Rich Hill’s injury indicate no structural damage to his forearm, but more details are sure to follow as the day moves on. The fact that he is throwing a ton of curveballs and sliders could certainly have been one of the reasons, if not the main reason, for last night’s injury.
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The Sox were certainly busy adding big name bats this offseason in Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, but there were plenty of smaller moves that were made in hopes of paying off on long-shot odds. Rich Hill, with his injury history and track record of poor command, was one of them–though he was also a part of their system for half of last season.
It has only been a total of eight innings pitched, but Hill looks like the left-handed reliever the Sox were hoping to find.
Since being called-up from Pawtucket, Hill has struck out 12 batters and walked only three. On top of that, he has been nearly as effective against righties (14 TBF, 2 H, 5/1 K/BB) as he has against lefties (15 TBF, 1 H, 7/2 K/BB).
The decision to drop Hill’s arm-slot down seems to have done wonders for his strikeout ability as well as his confidence. Since joining the Sox and being converted to a full-time reliever, Hill has not posted a BB/9 above three and this season he has struck out a combined 30 batters in 24 innings between Pawtucket and Boston.
What do I love most about Rich Hill? His pitch f/x are off the charts…literally.
Hill’s fastball is now being classified as a two seamer thanks to a ton more vertical movement and more sink than before the arm-slot adjustment. He’s even throwing it almost two MPH faster than he ever has. Also, the curveball that made him such a big prospect back in the day now features more sweeping action than it used to. That new curve has been highly effective and Hill has thrown it 83 times in his nine innings of work, compared to his fastball (32 times) and his slider (8 times).
While the sample size was insanely small, the early results were beyond encouraging. Hill’s .214 BABIP against was likely to adjust at some point (28.6 percent line-drive rate according to Fangraphs), but his pure stuff was getting a ton of whiffs and he wasn’t walking batters like he used to.
All of the work the Sox have put into Hill over the past year was starting to pay off. However, his possible season-ending arm injury makes that quite a moot point.