JUPITER, Fla. – On the mound, Clay Buchholz performed at times last year as if he had ice water in his veins. But ice on his shoulder? That’s another story completely.

The 26-year-old boasts the proverbial rubber arm, allowing him to operate as something of a big league outlier. Nearly every starter ices after an outing. Even relievers will encase themselves in mummified wraps after throwing perhaps 10 pitches in a game.

But Buchholz can withstand a 100-plus pitch endurance test and feel little to no soreness after the fact that night. And so, for years, he has taken a pass on a standard pitching practice.

“I [iced] when I was in high school, I guess, but I felt a lot worse the next day if I iced than if I didn’t. So I’ve been doing [without] that since I got to college,” said Buchholz. “Sometimes I feel better the next day. I would go out and play catch and the ball would feel like it was coming out of my hand better. Usually it’s the second day, I think it’s the sore day everyone has. I’m a little bit more sore that day. That day after I feel fine.”

That Buchholz feels little soreness after throwing is a noteworthy part of what the Sox hope will be an important step in his development in 2011.

Last year, for the first time, Buchholz spent a full year in a big league rotation. He was a dominant pitcher, finishing second in the AL in ERA with a 2.33 mark, and forging a 17-7 record. 

But he missed four weeks after straining his hamstring while running the bases at the end of June, and also was scratched from his final start of the 2010 season with a sore back. As a result, he was limited to 28 starts and 173 2/3 innings.

This year, the Sox would like to see the right-hander take the next step to hit the 200 innings plateau. The right-hander – who saw an almost perfect spring get interrupted on Thursday as he allowed 11 runs (6 earned) and four homers in four innings in a 15-7 exhibition loss to the Marlins – shares that goal.

“Absolutely,” Buchholz said of his desire to reach 200 innings. “That’s something that I wanted to do last year. I felt like I was in good shape to do it, then the tragic series in San Francisco.

“I felt as strong last year in the last game as I did at the beginning of the season. That’s one of the references I’m going to use going into this year, knowing that being in the big leagues for a full season, pitching 28, 29 starts, and feeling strong all the starts, that’s what I took out of last year.”

Buchholz was indeed amidst one of his finer runs of the year at the end of last Sept. In his last three starts, he allowed just two runs in 21 innings (0.86 ERA), including an eight-inning, one-run effort against the White Sox in his final year of the season, an outing when Buchholz said his fastball was as good as it had been all year.

In 2010, Buchholz averaged a bit more than six innings a start. Had he made a full complement of 32 starts, he would have been on pace to throw 198 innings. Yet had he remained healthy, it is likely that he would have exceeded that number, since his injury during the aforementioned “tragic series” in San Francisco (one in which Buchholz, Dustin Pedroia and Victor Martinez all suffered injuries that sidelined them for significant stretches) limited him to a one-inning start.

The Sox believe that the pieces exist for Buchholz to join Jon Lester as a homegrown 200-innings-a-year pitcher. While Lester is physically imposing, Buchholz’ loose limbs give him a resilient arm that can endure a significant workload.

Yet it should also be noted that it is not merely a rubber arm that allows the team to project Buchholz as a pitcher capable of reaching a noteworthy innings threshold. At the end of the 2007 season, after all, he had to be shut down at the end of the year with fatigue in his right shoulder that the team feared would leave Buchholz vulnerable to injury.

Since then, he has embraced the work needed to stay on a shoulder program that would allow him to remain strong throughout a full season. Last year, the results were evident, and the Sox believe that will remain the case going forward.

“He's not the tallest kid. I've always said Lester is built for (200 innings), and he's been that way,” said Sox manager Terry Francona. “I think Buch has learned how to work, and I think he will be that guy, too. His mechanics are sound. His arm always feels good. He bounces back really well.”

Moreover, the progression of Buchholz’ workload as he has moved up the pro ranks has been scaled deliberately. In 2007, he threw 146 innings before having the plug pulled just prior to the playoffs. In an otherwise disappointing 2008 campaign, Buchholz nudged that total up slightly by pitching over 150 innings in the majors, minors and Arizona Fall League.

It was in 2009 that Buchholz significantly elevated his workload. He pitched 99 minor league innings and added on 92 more at the major league level, while also tossing five innings in his first career playoff start for a total of 196 frames. His improved pitch efficiency allowed him to take on such a haul that year, and also positioned him to a point where the Sox could allow his pitching – rather than any innings restrictions on a young pitcher – dictated how much he threw in 2010.

That will remain the case going forward. The Sox are mindful of the so-called Verducci Effect (after Sports Illustrated writer Tom Verducci, who has written extensively on the issue), the idea that a single-season workload increase of 20 percent or more innings can put a pitcher at risk of injury. But based on how much Buchholz has thrown in 2009 and 2010, there would seem little grounds for concern that 200 innings would put the 26-year-old in any kind of jeopardy. 



“I think he's good. I think he was at 174 [innings in 2010], which is actually pretty good because even with that 20-percent increase, that gets him up well over 200 [innings], so there isn't that red flag there where if we start getting to where we want to go, you think, we better watch out,” said Francona. “He's in pretty good shape.”


And, of course, Buchholz features a repertoire that allows him to toy with hitters like few others. His pitches dart all over the place – whether a sinking two-seamer, a swooping curveball, fading changeup or a cutter – in a fashion that helped him become one of the AL’s top pitchers last year.

Now that he understands how to employ his many offerings in a major league setting, Buchholz has the repertoire to pitch deep into games on a consistent basis.

“The stuff he has, the changeup he has, he’s in a position to go out and pitch 200 innings, make 32 starts,” said Sox pitching coach Curt Young. “He’s a guy that’s going to stay healthy and knows how to pitch.”

The Sox are banking on that notion. In a rotation that features Jon Lester as a pillar, there remain questions about how John Lackey, Josh Beckett and Daisuke Matsuzaka will perform following 2010 seasons that featured inconsistencies.

If Buchholz can retain his status as one of the better pitchers in the league while also adding on more of an innings load, it would bode extremely well for his club. Perhaps that explains Francona’s last thought on whether Buchholz can become a 200-inning pitcher in 2011.

“He better,” the manager said.