I dont know how many pitches he’s thrown. It doesn’t matter if he threw 15 pitches in 5 innings, he’ll be taken out anyway. as per milb, re his last start:

‘Despite having a reported pitch count in the low-60s, Hughes left after five innings because of a limit placed by New York in order to preserve Hughes’ arm.’

even if he reached his limit which is 80 in 5 ip, that’s still only 16 per inning. that’s pretty good, especially for a strikeout pitcher. CM Wang is among the leaders in the show, and he throws 13-14 per inning, so 16 (the max) isn’t bad. (yes, i know it’s stil AA).

You don’t really believe that Hughes is being pulled after five innings having thrown 60 pitches, do you? They are basing his work on pitch count. This is why he has stayed put at AA, one of the reasons anyway.

Sure he’s a young AA player, but there’s part of the answer. AAA is full of veteran types and they don’t thnk Hughes will handle that this year.

Nowhere did I say he isn’t a top pospect, nowhere. I am merely pointing out a reason for concern this year. A reason that may disappear in 2007 in AAA.

How do you know what his pitch counts are? I cant find them anywhere on the web. And he’s younger than most of the hitters at AA.

Are you actually saying you’re not excited about him? (again) kazmir & liriano were highly touted prospects who turned out great. (again) he’s no certainty, but he’s extremely promising.

you’re right, it’s not rocket science. over his last 6 starts (29 ip), he’s allowed 3 er total, 11 h, 6 bb, 43 k. what is the point in keeping him at AA longer? he’s completely dominating. the 5 ip max is extra precaution to protect the best arm in the system.

btw, thanks for being condescending.

Hughes was on the DL each of his first two seasons, thus the careful pitch count. I don’t think you can find a five inning 55 or 60 or so pitch count from him recently.

This is my point (again)…. He seems to need quite a few pitches to get out AA hitters. That is all. Thus he is far from ready this season for AAA.

This isn’t rocket science.

ok, to correct everyone, Hughes is on a 5 ip/ 80 pitch limit (whichever comes first), as per babybombers.com

and he’s only gone less than 5 ip 3 times this whole season. two of those were AFTER that limit was installed. and the other was his 1st start of the year.

btw, he went tonight: 5 ip, 0 h, 1 bb, 9 k. not too bad i’d say.

why is he still in AA? i’d at least let him get his feet wet in Columbus. no, we dont KNOW he’ll be great, but i’m very excited. http://yankeesetc.blogspot.com/

Hell, name me a team with 5 really good pitchers that have done it for more than a year or so.
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Interesting question. As I looked back at the linked article, I wrote; “Not many great pitchers out there, but I’m thinking of cases like Wood-Zambrano-Prior (Cubs), or Zito-Mulder-Hudson (Oakland), or all the arms that came out of the Astros system not too long ago (Oswalt-Reynolds-Miller-Elarton-Wagner-Lidge). Or the Dodgers’ system (Martinez-Nomo-Valdez-Astacio), so on and so forth.”

Bailey, thanks for the personal attack. I guess it shows just what kind of person you are.

Hughes is indeed on a pitch count, But since you are rather dim I need to waste bandwidth here and repeat what I wrote. The point, quite simply, is he’s eating up his pitch count in just five innings. I really could not have been more clear in my original post. That is a concern. Why is he throwing his 80-90 pitches in just five innings to AA hitters. Got it? It really is simple laddie.

As for Clippard, since you didn’t say anything to dispute what I posted your diatribe is moot.

Have a nice day.

I believe if Felix was on the Yanks, he’d still be in the minors, ala Hughes. Felix, just going by last night’s start, is still a very raw talent. He needs some ‘ironing out.’ This is what the Yanks are doing with Hughes. If he was in the show now, I could see him having the same issues as Felix. They’re both only 20! The only difference is the Yanks can afford to ‘iron out’ Hughes, whereas the M’s cant. That’s and advtange the Yanks have: they can still use FAs & trades to fill out the rotation, and dont have to rely on cheap minor leaguers.

Kazmir, 22
Liriano, 22

Ask a Mets fan about Kazmir, or a Giants fan about Liriano. Actually, one of my friends IS a Giants fan, and everytime I mention him, he says ‘Goddam you!’ [shakes fist] Those guys could dominate the AL for the next 15 years!

Don, thanks for exposing your complete lack of knowledge on the subject. Since you obviously have no idea what’s going on, I don’t have to even bother getting into what you said about Clippard (in short, you’re wrong). Hughes is not a “five-inning wonder.” Even a tiny HINT of research would let you in on the fact that he’s on a strict pitch-count/innings leash. There have been many games recently where he could have gone beyond five but was stopped because they don’t want his pitch count this year to greatly exceed his pitch count of last year.

Phew! Phil Hughes, again.

As for Clippard, he’s still a mid-level prospect. No one can tell how a guy like Clippard, with a ML average curve (as of now) a plus changeup and a ML average fastball will perform. The rest is up to makeup, grit, heart, etc. That’s why Clippard is a mid-level prospect, right now a number four or five starter at best.

Hughes is what he is. Dominating in AA although throwing 80+ pitches over five innings to AA hitters is a cause for some concern. Is he jsut finding himself or is he going to be another five inning wonder? These are AA hitters after all and though he has a lot of K’s, he’s also finding it hard to close the deal on them what with that high pitch count per five innings. Worth keeping him to find out though. Unless you can get a Willis for him.