This is some great text from an article titled, Brian Bannister and the art of making pitchers better:
The talk represented a landmark in (Rich) Hill’s professional career, and perhaps in Bannister’s. Hill, Bannister noted, had a spin rate on his curveball that ranked among the highest in the game. Yet as a starter, the veteran lefthander felt compelled to work within a standard framework, utilizing his curve as a secondary pitch. Bannister guided Hill to a radically different usage pattern.
“We talked about a different perspective of looking at pitching,” said Hill. “I remember it clearly. We talked for a good hour, hour and a half the first day.
“It was so refreshing, talking about shaping pitches, shaping the breaking ball. We talked about other pitchers — Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw — specifically about how they can shape their different breaking balls that they throw.
“All of those things took me from four pitches to maybe 12. It was like I had 12 pitches because of changing speeds, changing shapes, changing locations.
“If you talk about pitching as a standard, we talk about fastball and location. We don’t talk about changing speeds on our fastball really. It didn’t really click for me until talking to Brian.
“He gave me the freedom of creativity. That’s the best way I can put it. My creativity went through the roof after these conversations.”