Buchholz Growing and Learning

Clay Buchholz is coming off an impressive spring and feels that he’s made major strides since last year in which he spent most of the year in the minors with an above six ERA after having an above 9 ERA in the majors.

In a recent interview he used the analogy of a ball of yarn to describe his season; When one thing would go wrong someone would pull at that ball and he would completely unravel.  Part of the reason for this is that from little league all through the minors, and even his first few starts with the Sox, including a no hitter in his second start, Clay had never expereinced any kind of adversity in his game.  He’s excelled in all levels of play, never really being challenged.  So when one thing would go wrong he wasn’t sure how to handle it and as a result would come apart.

The spring has been differnt for Buchholz.  A great example: with a man on first an errant pick off attempt brought him to third, then eventually home when the same thing happened again.  Last year this would’ve completely taken him off his game, however, he recovered quickly and struck out the next two batters and didn’t allow another run.

Expect Clay to be much better than last year.