McCullers works on new motion
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — During Lance McCullers’ rehab from the shoulder soreness that delayed the start to his 2016 season, the Astros introduced to their electric young righthander a mechanical tweak they hoped would alleviate the stress on his arm.
The adjustment was in McCullers’ motion. The pitcher worked to adopt a more compact arm action than the one he had used in the past.
But becoming comfortable with new mechanics while working back from injury and then while pitching in regularseason games proved difficult. At some point last summer, McCullers reverted to what he was accustomed to. An elbow sprain ended his season in early August.
Now, with a full offseason to prepare and a full spring training ahead of him, McCullers again is working with a modified arm action. This one is “sort of similar” to last year’s, he said, but this time the conditions to make such an adjustment are more ideal.
“We have more time this year, obviously,” he said Wednesday. “I’m feeling more comfortable with it, which is the biggest thing.”
McCullers said his new motion consists of him “staying more even with my body, not letting my arm float so far behind.” (“It’s pretty boring if you kind of get into it,” he quipped.)
The 23-year-old is four bullpen sessions into his throwing program, in which he is focusing mostly on commanding his fastball and refining his change-up.
“We’ve been taking video,” he said. “Everything’s been looking really good, looking really promising.”
Commanding the fastball will be key for McCullers, who relied on his devastating power curveball about 48.5 percent of the time over his 14 starts last season. Although one school of thought dictates curtailing his curveball usage might take stress off his arm, McCullers actually tends to be less sore on days after he starts when he has thrown more curveballs.
A second opinion McCullers sought last year after his elbow injury validated the pitcher’s theory. In October, the pitcher was accompanied by agent Scott Boras to a visit with renowned orthopedic surgeon Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles.
After ElAttrache gave McCullers a clean bill of health, the three baseball men discussed pitch usage. Boras, according to McCullers, was hoping ElAttrache would say the pitcher needed to throw more fastballs. But that was not the case.
“He said that the way I throw my curveball probably puts the least amount of stress on my arm of all my pitches,” McCullers said. “Hearing that was nice because Scott was with me and he wanted him to say something else. I won that battle.”
McHugh says hearing strictly aboveboard
Astros starting pitcher Collin McHugh sought out general manager Jeff Luhnow on Wednesday morning before the team’s pitchers and catchers took the fields for their first spring training workout.
McHugh wanted Luhnow to know he felt the Astros handled his arbitration hearing “with 100 percent class.”
“There weren’t any bumps in the road,” McHugh said the day after prevailing in the case, which secured him a $3.85 million salary for this season rather than the $3.35 million the team proposed. “There was no bad blood.”
Sitting in a room as two sides argue over your worth can make for an awkward situation for a player. McHugh downplayed that aspect Wednesday, though, calling it “a privilege to even be there.”
“I was telling my wife, ‘They’re never going to say anything that I haven’t said to myself 100 times over,’ ” he said with a smile. “And that was true. Both sides were fair. I thought it was a really fair hearing and a good process.”
McHugh, who is the Astros’ representative to the players’ association, found it interesting to “see how the engine works from the inside.”
The 29-year-old righthander, whom the Astros acquired off waivers in December 2013 said, “If you would have asked me five years ago would I ever have a chance to do that, I probably would’ve told you no.”
This year marks McHugh’s first seven-figure salary. The former 18th-round draft pick of the New York Mets made $529,000 last season in the final year before he was eligible for salary arbitration.
“Having some perspective I think is always key, especially doing what we’re doing,” he said. “I know thousands and thousands of people would kill to be able to play baseball for a living, and I don’t try and take it for granted at all.
“I know every day out here is a privilege and an honor. But at the same time, we know what kind of work we’ve put in, me and my family, over the last five, six, seven years, and it feels pretty satisfying to get where we are now.”
Odds and ends
Joe Musgrove, Chris Devenski, Luke Gregerson and Tony Sipp were among 13 pitchers to throw bullpen sessions Wednesday during the team’s first official workout. All the pitchers rotated from station to station for fielding and agility drills. … New Astros outfielder Josh Reddick checked into the Astros’ facility Wednesday after driving six hours from his hometown in Georgia on Tuesday. …
Former Astros bench coach Trey Hillman visited his old team Wednesday during a day off from his new job managing South Korean baseball club SK Wyverns, which is training about 80 miles north of West Palm Beach in Vero Beach. … Minor league righthander Dayan Diaz was the only pitcher or catcher yet to arrive ahead of the team’s first official workout Wednesday. Diaz, a non-roster invitee to major league spring training, was expected to miss the first day or two because of travel delays.