Oakland Athletics: The Perseverance Of Rich Hill

Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Rich Hill has shown incredible perseverance over his twelve year career, and it may finally be paying off in 2016.

The adversities that Rich Hill has had to overcome to get to where he is today is truly remarkable. The left-handed starting pitcher for the Oakland Athletics has spent twelve long years playing for eight different ball-clubs, bouncing around from the major and minor league levels, battling through two major arm surgeries, and having to come out of the bullpen from 2012 to 2014 all for this moment–To be an every-day starting pitcher for a major league baseball team.

“It was really a personal journey for myself getting back to what I always wanted to do, being a starting pitcher,” said Hill during a Spring Training interview.

The 35-year-old began to feel like he could pitch on the major league level again in 2015 before getting called up to the Boston Red Sox in September:

"“Honestly, it started when I was throwing bullpens back home. I could feel the consistency, I could feel the ball coming out of my hand the way I wanted it to,” Hill said. “Every outing built off the prior outing. That was really where that came from. It was always there — it was getting the opportunity and running with it. The confidence has always been there, the ability has always been there. For me it was no surprise what happened in September.”"

What happened in September earned Hill a one-year six-million dollar “show me what you have” contract with the A’s in 2016. Hill went 2-1 for Boston with a 1.55 ERA, 36 strikeouts and 5 walks in only 29 innings pitched.

The momentum that Hill had in September of ’15 has carried over into the 2016 season. This year, Rich is pitching like an ace. He’s 8-3 with a 2.25 ERA, and 74 strikeouts in just 64 innings pitched. His ERA is good for seventh best in the league and his FIP isn’t far behind at tenth best.

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One might ask how has Rich Hill suddenly found his groove at such a late stage in his career? The truth is that he hasn’t changed much in regards to how he pitches. His velocity has remained the same throughout, and how he chooses to attack opposing batters hasn’t significantly changed. Having said that, there is one slight but key difference in Hill’s approach–He has a much better ratio of breaking pitches thrown compared to his hard stuff.

From 2007 to 2014, Hill was throwing his hard and breaking pitches at a 60/40 split. He would give batters 60% breaking balls to 40% hard and vice versa. The new and improved Rich Hill is now very balanced. He’s almost at a 50/50 split with his amount of breaking pitches and hard stuff. That healthy allocation has kept hitters uncomfortable long enough for Hill to be successful.

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While the Oakland A’s could be sellers at the trade deadline, Rich Hill  is probably not concerned about being traded. He’s played all over the country, and gone through two major arm surgeries for the ultimate goal of becoming an every-day starting pitcher. He finally has exactly what he wanted with the A’s and if he’s fortunate enough, he could be pitching for a contender come September.