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Don't know where else to stick this in:  Hultzen's head moves 12" straight at 1B, and then he takes a 90-degree turn and goes to home plate.  I wonder if he's going to wind up being one of those LHP's who allows 2 stolen bases per year.

Terry Mulholland allowed a good steady 1, 2 stolen bases per full season - 35 SB's and 50 CS's in twenty years.  Whitey Ford had quite a few seasons with 0 stolen bases allowed, like went from 1958 to 1962 without allowing one, or something like that.  It was suicide to try to run on Kenny Rogers.  I think it's funny to watch LHP's who completely eliminate the running game - not like "it's real tough to run on him" but like they literally take stolen bases out of the game when they're involved.

Hard to say.  El Sid was one of my fave pitchers, and is my birthday twin to within a month (which for us is within 0.0002%), but Sid was terrible at holding runners.

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Hultzen’s curveball/slider was a 77-79 MPH offering with more downer action than his previous breaking ball. Where his mid-80′s slider cut across the plate, this hybrid pitch featured more downward action and less velocity. 

If I were Hultzen's opponents I'd be lining up my excuses to beg out of the lineup.

Never cared for Hultzen's "slider."  For one thing, and maybe you've never noticed this:  the slider is demonstrably the worst pitch in baseball.  But sidearm, flat, one-plane "sliders" are even worse, and sliders that echo a changeup's velocity are worse yet.

Boom, surprise surprise, we find that Hultzen scrapped the lousy little nickel curve for --- > a Barry Zito 72 MPH yellow hammer?!  What are you KIDDING me?

:::: bwaahaahaahahahAAAAA! ::::

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Labeling it a slurve can have negative connotations and this was a good pitch. The fact Hultzen’s breaking ball is still his third best pitch has not changed. What has changed is that a third offering which does not closely mirror his changeup like his slider did before will allow for even more pitchability and deception. 

Additionally, tweaking or swapping out a pitch altogether is very difficult to do and Hultzen accomplished it with ease. It’s a feat worth mentioning and speaks highly of his ability to make adjustments.

Bill James used to have a 7-bullet checklist for gauging college pitchers, and high on it was intelligence.  Not baseball intelligence:  high SAT's.  We remember his predicting a career for Norm Charlton based on this factor.

Those who just joined us, Hultzen's family did everything they could to keep him out of baseball, so he could become a surgeon like his dad.  This factoid converges with the "instant change curve, just add water" factoid.

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Maybe his best pitch, Hultzen’s changeup was a bit softer than last season at 81 MPH instead of the 82-85 MPH pitch witnessed pre-draft in 2011. However, this is of little concern because the velocity differential is strong at about 10 MPH. What is of slight concern is that his lower arm slot caused the pitch to float a bit too much for my liking at times leading to a loss a in sharp, late bite. The pitch flashed plus, but wasn’t the consistent plus offering seen last season.

Many remember that Jamie Moyer's magic number was 8:  "If my changeup isn't at least 8 MPH slower than my fastball, I'll be backing up bases."

The changeup was supposed to be Hultzen's signature weapon, and we've noted before that a FB-CH combo was the ticket ridden by Johan Santana, Cole Hamels, and Ricky Romero.  The template here - quick LH fastball, with command, whipsawed against a plus LH change - is just a great, great template.

Haven't seen Hultzen's pitch shapes from the CF camera, but the F/X style factoids offered by Newman give a good sense.  The video confirms that Hultzen has a juggernaut-class deceptive pitching motion.

Twelve lockdowns and counting.  There aren't many MLB stars who could match Hultzen's AA performance.