Dan Haren's scouting reports have made Arizona Diamondbacks' Clay Buchholz better

Nick Piecoro | The Republic | azcentral.com

SAN FRANCISCO – On certain nights at home, when the kids are in bed and the house is quiet, Diamondbacks right-hander Clay Buchholz will break out the advance report the club prepared for him and begin cramming for his next start.

Buchholz, who, at 34, is enjoying one of his best stretches in years, will try to continue his roll on Tuesday night against the Giants at AT&T Park, and he will once again rely on the scouting report, something he believes has played a huge part in his resurgent season.

“I pitch a little differently now,” he said after throwing seven scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Angels last week. “I go more on what our catchers and our coaches see rather than how I feel. I try to pitch to hitters’ weaknesses a lot more than I used to. I used to rely solely on stuff.”

Early in his career, Buchholz had a fastball that sat close to the mid-90s. Now, he’s mostly around 91. Older and wiser, he believes he better understands how to deploy his repertoire – how to add and subtract velocity from his pitches, how to sequence his pitches, how to read hitters’ swings.

But he also thinks he’s going into starts better prepared than before. For that, he thanks the Diamondbacks’ behind-the-scenes staff, which includes pitching strategist and former All-Star pitcher Dan Haren and advance scouting/coaching assistant Alex Cultice.

Haren prepares reports for every starter that are specifically tailored for that night’s opponent. He’ll try to find ways that each pitcher can use his specific repertoire for each hitter in the opposing lineup.

“He’s made me better,” Buchholz said of Haren. “I’ve told him that. He’s made me better.”

Buchholz said the specificity is what makes the reports unique compared to what he’s been given in the past.

“This is sort of modeled toward the pitcher,” he said. “I think that’s how it’s helped. It’s not just your straightforward model for each hitter. It’s more designed for what you throw and when you throw it and how you throw it.”

He said the reports are useful in that they go into detail but not so much as to overwhelm a pitcher, and he especially likes that he gets info on what zones or counts are best for a particular pitch rather than being told to avoid a pitch entirely.

“That’s what I would do in the past,” he said. “Like if it said, ‘This guy is hitting .450 off change-ups since 2015,’ then I would eliminate my change-up. That got me in trouble a lot because the change-up was one of my best pitches.

“I look at it completely different now. I’m not going to eliminate any pitch regardless of what the hitter does against them. I feel like if I can command it and throw it in a location where I want to, I feel like I have a pretty good chance.”

Buchholz’s success is one of the most unexpected stories of the Diamondbacks’ season. He began the year on a minor league deal with the Kansas City Royals before opting out and becoming a free agent in May. Four days later, he signed with the Diamondbacks on another minor league deal.

Buchholz made two starts with Triple-A Reno before joining the big league rotation, and in 80 innings since, he has logged a 2.25 ERA.

“He has a unique ability in put the ball in four different areas of the plate, different speeds, front to back,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “When you give him that information and he knows what he needs to do, he’s really good at executing.”

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Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.