Phil Hughes

Rob Neyer once wrote that baseball history has two major themes: owners taking economic advantage of the players, and pitchers trying to develop a better change-up.

Most baseball fans never notice that a pitcher is only as good as his secondary pitch. Phil Hughes is a good example of that. He's always experimenting with another good pitch to go with his fastball. Two seasons ago, his fastball was used 65% of the time, his curve 18%, and his slider just 4%.

For whatever reason, it could have been his recovering sore shoulder, he changed up that selection quite drastically last season. His fastball was at 62%, his slider was up to 24%, and his curve was down to 9%. And he had disastrous results. His ERA was up almost a full run per game.

This year in spring training inter-squad games, he's back up to 25% curve balls. Hughes has a history of mixing it up more than most. Great pitchers are known for mixing it up that way.

They know the secret to getting to the majors is a great fastball.

They also know that staying there requires the finesse of at least one good change-up. It looks like he's going with the curveball again this year.

And once the season starts he'll will stick with it. Because the other secret is that you have to be confident in that pitch to even have a shot at being effective with it.