Hynick may do the unthinkable

In the California League, where a sub-4.00 ERA has been nearly unheard of in seasons past, Modesto Nuts pitcher Brandon Hynick is one of very few hurlers on track to post an even lower number -- like below 3.00.

All he had to do was take a step back.

Last year, when he was with the Rockies' Pioneer League affiliate in Casper, Hynick was encouraged to adjust his pitching mechanics by backing up over the rubber a bit more. He credits that change with being responsible for his red-hot year in Modesto this season.

"My body kept getting ahead of my arm," Hynick said. "The result was, my arm was dragging and the ball was up [in the strike zone]. By shifting my weight back, it helps keep the ball down, and I started throwing more strikes."

The right-hander has thrown a career-high 87 strikeouts in 116 1/3 innings with the Nuts this season. That workload is fourth among all Minor League pitchers.

But it has been Hynick's 10-2 record and 2.48 ERA that have raised eyebrows around the Cal League, traditionally a hitters' paradise where pitching stats can get pretty ugly. The tweaked technique, however, has allowed the 22-year-old Hynick to succeed.

"By keeping the ball down, it's a lot harder to hit out," he said. "I don't have a plus strikeout pitch, but keeping the ball down gives me another out-pitch."

Hynick relies on four pitches -- fastball, change, curve and split -- but said he considers himself a five-pitch pitcher because he is able to locate his fastball on the inside and outside of the plate.

That command has allowed Hynick to overwhelm opposing batters with precision rather than power.

"I'm definitely trying to spot-up and locate all my pitches," he said. "I try to locate because I know I'm not going to blow too many people away with my fastball.

"There are a couple of pitches a game that I try to blow people away, but I think I've got to stop doing that. I try to do too much, and I don't throw it where I want to."

Hynick said that one of the biggest differences in his approach to pitching, between last year and this year, is being able to recognize different situations and effectively use the tools in his arsenal to handle them.

"I've been learning how to pitch more and more as I go out there, how to adjust to hitters," he said. "When you have the ability to throw strikes with every pitch, you really learn [which pitch] to call and when to call it."

But Hynick said he still finds himself struggling in some games to nail down consistency in all of his pitches, and it has hurt him a few times this season.

"When a few pitches aren't working, and I have to throw my split or fastball, I'm really limited to what I can throw. And the batters catch onto that, they knew that was going to happen. It helps when I have all of my pitches located."

It also helps to have confidence in the defense behind you, which Hynick said helps bolster his attitude and performance.

"I've been in some real jams this year and worked my way out of it," he said. "I really go out there and battle sometimes. I never give up. I never give in to the hitter."

The Nuts know that Hynick puts the team first, too.

Hynick was an obvious choice to pitch in the 2007 California/Carolina League All-Star Game, but he didn't go because one of his starts for the Nuts fell too close to the exhibition.

"It would have been nice to pitch, but I knew about a week and a half before that I wouldn't be able to, just because of the scheduling," he said. "I was fine with it. I know that Modesto is more important than the All-Star Team."

The Nuts currently sit atop the Cal League North Division with a 12-8 second-half mark, their best position since the break. But the club knows it will need Hynick's best efforts to make a push all the way into the postseason.

"We're on a hot streak right now," Hynick said. "Hopefully we can stay on it. There are ups and downs in a baseball season, so I'm sure we're going to struggle a bit later. That's just how baseball is."

Until then, Hynick will just continue to put his best foot forward.