Phil Hughes Watch Tonight
Posted by Steve L. on September 5th, 2007 · Comments (10)
Phil Hughes has made 4 career starts at Yankee Stadium, to date, in his career. Here’s how he has lasted in the four:
1st: 4.1 IP and 91 Pitches
2nd: 4.2 IP and 92 Pitches
3rd: 5.0 IP and 94 Pitches
4th: 4.1 IP and 94 Pitches
Would it be a wild guess to say that Hughes will throw 91-94 pitches tonight and go 4.1 to 5.0 IP?
Well, at least he’s consistent… :/
Why am I getting Jaret Wright flashbacks?
Bite your tongue, Christopher. Phil is a 21 y.o. rookie, and should have spent the year in AAA.
Biggest difference between Wright and Hughes: Wright was a vet with years of big-league experience; Hughes is a rookie with a few starts under his belt.
I would love for the Yankees to get Hughes some run support tonight. It would be great if he could relax a bit more at the Stadium, the way Kennedy was able to in his start. Hughes’ games have often been weird affairs — home and on the road — where errors or one bad pitch or odd plays seem to really haunt him.
Hopefully working with Dave Eiland will help whatever mechanical flaws he had in his last start.
What I really hope to see from Hughes is a better gameplan. More changeups. Maybe a slider or two in certain situations. Some two-seamers.
Thus far, outside of the Texas game and the Indians game (his two best), I’ve found the Yankees handling of Hughes (as far as what he throws and when) to be quite odd.
I agree bailey. I am actually going to keep track tonight, with my trusty pencil and paper, to see how many pitches he throws that aren’t a 4-seamer or curve, to the best of my judgment. Watching Bucholz last week made me realize what it’s like to mix up pitches. That kid did an amazing job mixing up everything he had, all over the plate. Now, I realize that Hughes has never mixed up his pitches quite like that, and that they are two different pitchers in that regard, but still, the results may be interesting.
SFYanks,
Hughes has never HAD to mix up his pitches like that. His curve and FB control are/were that good. Buchholz doesn’t have half the command that Hughes has shown in the past, and should he regain it, he could probably be dominant with just the FB and curve, with the occasional change to keep them off balance. But of course, as we know, the control has been bad and the curve hasn’t been breaking as much.
But, as Hughes gets older (since Buchholz is about 2 years older) and gains more confidence in his change and returns to his slider, I imagine he will mix pitches way more, which will make him all the more effective. You could tell in that Times article that he didn’t really trust his change at all, which is silly since it is/was already a ML level pitch, just not a ++ one yet
97 pitches and 6 innings – one mistake away from a six inning shutout (his best home start of the year). aight!
I doubt Phil projects to a Jaret Wright type pitcher. Even if he does he is not costing us 7 mil per season. One great thing about homegrown pitchers is they are disposable. By the way, make fun of Jaret all we want, he was a competitor. Carl Pavano would have been an ace if he had Jaret Wright’s heart.
6 IP, 2 BB, 6K.
Not too shabby!
By the way, make fun of Jaret all we want, he was a competitor. Carl Pavano would have been an ace if he had Jaret Wright’s heart.
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Wright is just as brittle as Pavano. Heart doesn’t do a lot of good when the body keeps falling apart.