Buchholz vs. Hughes

[cmaff051]

Now that Buchholz has emerged on the scene as a legitimate Top 5 pitching prospect, this is a very interesting debate. These two could be dueling it out for the next 5 years if everything goes to plan.

Here's my thoughts on the matter.

Fastball- they both have similar velocity on their 4 seam fastball. Hughes has a good 2 seamer that he gets many groundballs with, while it looks like Clay's 2 seamer (if he has one) isn't nearly as effective. How Hughes beats Buchholz in this comparision is in the fact that his fastball command is much better.

Curveball - Buchholz has a very good curve that he can spot very well. He threw one very good curveball to a Trenton hitter.. it was just filthy. The rest of the time, he flashed a plus curveball that was a little bit loopy at times. Hughes has a plus curveball that he can spot at will also. This comparision is even.

Changeup - equal on movement, although command goes to Buchholz. He spots his changeup much more consistently than Hughes

Command - Buchholz has good command of all his secondary pitches, but Hughes command of his fastball, along with his secondary stuff, is better

Performance - Buchholz has very very good BB/9 rates in AA. But he is also 3 years older than Hughes and has a much higher HR/9 rate and gives up a lot of flyballs. By comparision, Hughes was a groundball machine. I give the advantage to Hughes here because he did it 3 years younger than Buchholz.

EDIT: If you want to see videos of the two, watch Buchholz's start against Trenton on May 23 on milb.tv (it's free). MLB.tv has Hughes's start against the Texas Rangers on May 1st.

[Chach]

At this very moment, Hughes is better. The major reasons being that he has command of his fastball. Buchholz has done a marvelous job of not walking guys in the minors but he is fastball command away from being an ace. I like his curveball, even with the looping action. He has shown on occasion that he can break off really tight curves so I think with a bit more development time in the higher minors and in the majors, he will have a devastating curve.

I have been contending that Buchholz's AA season thus far has been better than Hughes' and I was laughed at several weeks ago when I said that. I still stand by that statement. Hughes' season was more remarkable because of the age he did it at and the fact that he's in the majors is remarkable as well. But statistically speaking, Buchholz is having a better season. mahalo
~Chach~

[cmaff051]

We should wait until the end of the year before declaring Buchholz to have a betters season than Hughes. Garza had a better season than Hughes last year in a smaller sample size, but he can't even make the Twins rotation.

[bigboy1234]

I'll take Hughes still.

He was having a very nice year this year in the minors despite what his ERA says.

I would actually agree with Chach that Buchholz is having a better stint in AA(not by much though), but that Buchholz starting AA when he was 22 and two thirds old compared to Hughes starting AA before he turned 20 makes a good amount of difference.

[nykgeneralmanager]

Hughes is better because he commands his fastball better, has a great 2 seamer that hitters drive into the ground as if it were a sinker, and I feel that Hughes has a better curve all around. It's close, I've obviously seen a lot more of Hughes than Buchholz...I've seen Hughes twice in person and Buchholz once. Hughes was more impressive to me both times than Buchholz was the one time I saw him.

[treyZz]

Hughes right now.

This will probably be a good comparsion a few years down the road.