Thanks for this post, Steve. I’ve always felt that it’s fine for a writer to not be objective — as long as they’re honest about it. We all have some players we like more than others, sometimes for no rational reason whatsoever; as long as you’re upfront about it, and your audience can adjust accordingly, I don’t see the problem.

I have high hopes for Hughes myself, though. If “bland” is what’s worrying you… well, hey, no baseball player is publicly blander than Derek Jeter, and that seems to have worked out okay.

I can relate Steve. I don’t think Brett Favre is as great as the media and fans make him out to be.

~~Wow, Steve, you’ve out-stupided yourself. Good work.~~

Remind me of that next time you ask me to link to some of your work.

Michael Lewis wrote a book about this somewhere.

The name doesn’t come to mind.

Wow, Steve, you’ve out-stupided yourself. Good work. This is now the dumbest thing I’ve ever read on a Yankee blog anywhere. What team are you really a fan of?

I wouldn’t mind if Phil were facing Manny with a full count and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th at Fenway, and instead of throwing a pitch, he gets inside Manny like Neo got inside Agent Smith at the end of the first Matrix movie and blows him up.

That would save the Sox having to figure what to do with Manny’s option year, too.

I don’t know if I can say THE ABSOLUTE MOST but,
considering his MiLB numbers….
the media attention…
the Texas almost no-hitter…
the obvious maturity and level headedness…
the #1 prospect ranking at different times by different raters…
the fact that he has ACTUALLY made it to MLB and did not fail due to drugs, injury, personal problems…

Phil Hughes is porbably the greatest legitimate Yankee prospect since Mantle.

Murcer was hyped, but nobody in the know really expected the 2nd (or even 3rd or 4th) coming of Mantle.
Jeter looked great, but neither Torre or anyone else was SURE how he would perform.
And Maas, Spencer, Duncan, the football player at 3rd, et al?
Mostly hype and hope.

But Phil is the closest thing to the real deal, short of actually winning a CY, we have had in a while.

Bouton? Stottlemyre? Whitey?
Phil could be better then all of them.

So, Steve… you know what your problem is? Why it is so hard to put a handle on it? Why it alludes you so?

Are you sitting down Steve?
No, he’s doesn’t have the 99 mph FB that all the TV heros have.
But none the less….
He could be a Yankee God.
Something we have been waiting for, for a long time.

And so Steve…. (are you sitting down)….
You are afraid of being disappointed.
You love this team.
You live and die with them.
And you are afraid Phil will kill you.
If you allow yourself to believe…
that a Yankee God has appeared…
and he fails…
It will kill you.

So all of this is a self-protection mechanism to keep you from getting hurt. From getting slaughtered.

Tis better to expect the worst but get the best, then the other way around.

We understand Steve. Really. Hope can be scary. Faith can be painful.

So we understand Steve.
However….
when Phil turns out to be great…
we all here reserve the right…
to kick your ass inside-out and upside-down,
right here,
on your very own blog.

Enjoy 2008 Steve. You’ll be hearing from us soon.

This time last week, you could have written the same post and substituted the name Eli Manning. I could care less what expression Phil Hughes has on the mound as long as he performs.

Well, at least you admit this dislike is illogical.

I think it’s likely that if Hughes hadn’t sustained two leg injuries last season this blog entry would have never been written.