What you weren't told in that story is that the batters were told what pitch was coming and the location of the pitch. Not too hard to connect the dots, don't 'cha think?
I very seriously doubt that Brian Schneider is going to tell Jimmy Rollins, when Santana is on the mound, "Changeup away."
Oh--and if Kendrick posts the same numbers he did last year, when pitching 165-170 innings, then you'll have something.
He won't have to. The change up is his go-to pitch.
And besides, that's not the point. I'm not trying to convince anyone Santana won't be any good. The point is he's under a ridiculous microscope. That's not good for anyone's concentration.
While he goes to it almost 50% of the time when he's got an 0-2 count, according to the site below, the count that he throws the slider on is also an 0-2 count.
http://baseball.bornbybits.com/plots/Johan_Santana.htmlAnd, he throws it almost 19% of the time in that count. Overall, he throws the changeup less than 30% of the time. With a 95+-mph fastball, he'll be able to sneak the change in a fair amount.
Also, go down to the bottom of the page I gave the link for, above. You can't see Santana's fastball release point listed--because it's the same as the changeup's release point. Sit on the change and the fastball comes roaring by the batter, strike three, go back to the dugout.