Do you trust McHugh as a starter?

You must have enjoyed our flinging volleys at each other more than I thought.

 

But leave Peacock alone...he's had a very good start and a very bad start, now he gets some pen work and we'll see.

And on point...I do trust McHugh until I don't, or his arm wears out, or whatever, or not.

 

So far, so excellent

 

Unlike my irrational fandom of DMo... my fandom of McHugh is completely rational.

 

McHugh is on pace for more than 7 fWAR (only DeGrom and Scherzer did better than 7 fWAR last season). He’s currently 7th in the league.

Btw, Joe Musgrove is just ahead of McHugh on that list.

 

So the top chart shows that McHugh has basically been increasing his slider usage since June of last year. The bottom chart shows the whiffs per swing. McHugh has 7 straight months that batters are missing the slider over a third of the time they swing (i.e., increased usage hasn't caused batters to hit it better). The slider continues to be a pitch that McHugh can throw in the zone for strikes (about 15% of the time his pitches are sliders in the zone for a strike). When batters make contact on sliders in the zone against McHugh, they have the second lowest xwOBA (i.e., quality of contact) against starters (at least 10 batted balls).

His slider remains one of the best pitches in the game despite McHugh throwing more innings per outing and every batter knowing it is coming.

 

His demeanor is bona-fide starter material. All-Star 2019!

 

Lol his slider is fantastic and rightly getting the attention it deserves but I'd actually like to see SnapDragon a little more. His peak curve is an amazing pitch too.