The Marlins currently have a glut of starting pitchers at the upper level of the organization, most of whom have questionable futures on the team. After Josh Johnson and Ricky Nolasco, the team has five potential starters facing different issues in their quest to fill in the remaining three rotation slots.
Occasional Maniac reader nny mentioned over at the SoFlaMarlins boards that VandenHurk appears to be a significantly better pitcher than Chris Volstad
RVH has the potential to turn into a Ricky-lite if he can continue to improve his control. You look at their repertoire, they have the same 4 pitches (Fastball, Slider, Curve, Change), all outside the curve have idential velocities, although RVH looks like he might just abandon the curve, having thrown it just a couple dozen times this year.
No, RVH’s stuff don’t match ricky’s, but the biggest difference between the two is also location. And the difference between this year and last year is the fact that RVH has taken a major step forward with his location, being just 24 years of age he could continue to take step forwards. Even if he doesn’t, he still displayed above average control this season.
Factor in his ability to rack up K’s and he should have a very decent K/BB rate. Much like Ricky his problems are going to be FB’s and XBH. But, I mean, even if he doesn’t become Ricky, what’s he likely to become? A #3-#4 just like Volstad?
I disputed his point to some degree over at the thread of question, and I won’t do that so much here. What I will do is take a look at the changes that VandenHurk has made and whether those changes have yielded a net positive or negative effect. Unfortunately, 2007 data from Pitch f/x is questionable or not available from my usual source, Dan Brooks’ site Brooks Baseball, and VandenHurk only pitched four starts in 2008, so I’m just going to look at his 2009 data with Pitch f/x.
Check out the rest of my analysis on Rick VandenHurk at Marlin Maniac.
