Rob, are we sure Hudson’s reluctance to pitch up in the zone is at the direction of Mike Maddux and not a result of Hudson’s personal preference? Or are you suggesting that as the pitching coach, Mike Maddux should have made that suggestion by now? I agree with you that Hudson should mix in more fourseam fastballs up in the zone because he just doesn’t generate enough strikeouts as is. I know they’re all young and still have time to improve, but the main reason I am more optimistic about Flaherty than Hudson or Hicks is that Flaherty uses the whole strike zone and can throw his secondary pitches for strikes reliably. In contrast, last season Hicks and Hudson were too in love with the sinker and neither could consistently throw a breaking ball for a strike. As a result, hitters would sit on their sinkers and it made their sinkers less effective despite excellent velocity and movement. While they generated a lot of weak contact, they also had far fewer strikeouts than one would expect based on their stuff.
Thankfully, Hicks seems to have addressed these concerns in the off-season. Thus far in Spring Training, he has been able to throw his slider for strikes reliably and has mixed in a fourseam fastball to hitters. Unfortunately, Hudson seems to be the same pitcher he was last year.