Looking at the stats for Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, so far, this season, I wondered “When was the last time the Yankees had two kids, this young, pitch for the team at the same time – and pitch so poorly?”
So, I went over to Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Pitching Season Finder and set it for:
Pitching for the Yankees, since 1947, age 25 or younger, with at least 6 starts made, and an ERA+ of <=75. And, here's the results:
Year Number Players Matching +----+------+-----------------------------------------+ 2008 2 Ian Kennedy / Philip Hughes 1991 2 Jeff Johnson / Wade Taylor 1989 2 Jimmy Jones / Dave Eiland
That’s it. Just three times since 1947. (And, it only happened once before 1947 – when Ray Fisher and George Davis pitched for the 1912 Yanks.)
Ah, Jeff Johnson and Wade Taylor. And, Jimmy Jones and Dave Eiland. Granted, those guys were not up there in terms of “prospect status” – like, say Al Leiter, Brad Arnsberg and Bill Fulton – but, at one time, the Yankees were looking for them to help and it didn’t work out.
As mentioned before, that 1989-1991 period was maybe the worst three-year run in Yankees team history. Let’s hope that 2008-2010 doesn’t come close to what we had in Yankeeland back then….
9 Responses to “Those Darn Kids”
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May 28th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I think we would be looking at Hughes a lot differently if he had gotten sufficient run support to win his first starter, in which he pitched effectively, and Hawkins hadn’t blown up his credible start v. Baltimore.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I think we would be looking at Hughes a lot differently if he had gotten sufficient run support to win his first start
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Given the rest of the numbers he has put up so far, probably not…
May 28th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Given the rest of the numbers he has put up so far, probably not…
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Confidence is a big part of success in any activity. Having two wins under his belt may have helped Hughes relax and make it more likely that he would trust his stuff.
May 28th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Three injuries in less than a season-and-a-half are not encouraging. Hughes must now show he isn’t an injury waiting to happen.
May 28th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Confidence is a big part of success in any activity. Having two wins under his belt may have helped Hughes relax and make it more likely that he would trust his stuff.
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Even if he had the wins, it wouldn’t have changed the fact that he was pitching lousy. Of the 6 games he pitched in, he only did well in 2. And that’s giving him the game last april against the White Sox.
May 28th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
[...] was full of your pretty standard baseball actions, walk-offs, super rookies, crappy rookies (Ian Kennedy), and a whole lot of dingers. Awesomo is back so you better watch out cause your shiznit is wizeak. [...]
May 28th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Even if he had the wins, it wouldn’t have changed the fact that he was pitching lousy. Of the 6 games he pitched in, he only did well in 2. And that’s giving him the game last april against the White Sox.
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My point is that the wins could provide a foundation that might have enabled him to pitch better. The stuff is there.
May 28th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
The stuff is there.
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I agree. Having said that, there are a lot of pitchers that things didn’t pan out for whatever reason.
I guess my point is that given results, he still has to do his job. I would rather have 0-4, 2.00 than 0-4, 9.00
May 31st, 2009 at 8:58 pm
[...] Remember Jeff Johnson? He’s now a pitching coach for the Pirates (Low) A-Ball team. I just saw this quote from him in the Charleston Daily Mail: Kyle McPherson epitomizes the ups and downs of minor league baseball. [...]