The Savior Is Coming! [He Says With A Smirk]
Via George King:
Phil Hughes, rehabbing from a fractured rib, could be two minor-league starts away from providing help to the Yankee rotation.
Hughes starts tonight for Triple-A Scranton, and is expected to throw in the area of 60 pitches. His next outing would be an 80-pitch effort. After that it would go to 95.
Considering Joba Chamberlain went on the DL yesterday and Ian Kennedy and Dan Giese are starting this week against the Angels in Anaheim, could Hughes make that 95-pitch start in the big leagues?
“It’s possible,” manager Joe Girardi said.
We don’t know how Hughes will do when he comes back. Will he stink as much as he did earlier this season before he got hurt? Or, will be pitch as great as he did last September?
But, we do know this – he’s going to have to be more than a five-and-fly guy…if he’s going to help the team. And, to date, in his 19 big league starts, Hughes averages 4.99 IP per start.
Granted, in 8 of his 19 starts Hughes has pitched at least six innings. However, in none of those 8 starts did he allow more than 5 hits. That’s going to be the key for Hughes…because of his pitch count limits, etc. In order for him to give the Yankees innings…and not burn out their pen…he’s going to have to throw strikes and not allow hits at the same time.
Another thing that Hughes will need to do…actually, it’s two things: Pitch better at Yankee Stadium and pitch better to left-handed batters, as a whole. Check out these splits for Phil, in his career, to date:
PA BA OBP SLG vs. LHB @ YS 94 .321 .394 .571 vs. LHB on Road 102 .274 .402 .476 vs. RHB @ YS 111 .300 .355 .390 vs. RHB on Road 109 .184 .241 .265
It appears that Hughes needs an out-pitch for LHB…and he needs to allow less hits, period, at Yankee Stadium.
Can he do it? Time will tell…so it seems.
In order for him to give the Yankees innings…and not burn out their pen…he’s going to have to throw strikes and not allow hits at the same time.
———–
Pretty tall order, don’t you think?
If this is going to be the case, Girardi’s going to have to be creative with his bullpen usage. Probably best to have a second long man in the pen; Britton & Geise/Rasner maybe?
So our season hangs on the right arm of an overhyped, injury prone starter who can barely break a pane of glass with his fastball. Yipes.
Pete said it earlier and its really funny.
Kennedy and Hughes are going to make our break our season, when it looked like they wouldnt sniff the Big leagues for the remainder of 2008.
The key to Hughes is fastball command. It is clear that he doesnt have an electric fastball so he needs to be able to locate it. If he can, then he should be ok.
I have no expectations for either of them.
Me? I want to see a third pitch from Hughes.
We’ve seen the 89-91 MPH fastball. And, we’ve seen the curveball. Both are of big league quality. But, without that third pitch…it’s hard to live as a SP with a fastball below 95 MPH and just a curve too. Hitters can sit on one…and they will get you…if not the first time up then on the 2nd or 3rd…
That’s why two-pitch pitchers are better out of the pen…and why starters need 3 pitches if they’re going to consistently get you into the 5th, 6th, and 7th inning of a game…
Hughes needs to show a third pitch…it doesn’t need to be a great one…just average…and enough to give hitters something to think about…and where they, then, cannot sit on the fastball or curve and be right 50% of the time.
Can the Yanks reverse that trade that sent Karstens to the Pirates? An almost perfect game last night…..talk about trade regret. People were saying that Cash fleeced the Pirates, think again.
Pavano is the best bet so far, yeah he is the Great American Idle BUT he has the experience and is playing for a contract. At this point, the Yanks need a sure thing and Hughes is no sure thing as evidenced by Steve’s assessment of the situation. Hughes has shown glimmers of brilliance BUT the whole “Phil needs glasses” scandal and his lack of success doesn’t bode well for his use as a starter.
Whatever happened to Baileywalk? We could use a bit of apoplexy right now
I thought Hughes threw 4 pitches? Slider and changeup, no? Anyway, it would be better to get a handle on the fb & cb before he starts messing around with a 3rd pitch.
Can the Yanks reverse that trade that sent Karstens to the Pirates? An almost perfect game last night…..talk about trade regret. People were saying that Cash fleeced the Pirates, think again.
————-
Check again after Kartsens throws a bunch more innings for the Pirates
The NL west, not excluding the dbacks, can’t hit.
Raf – I was just wondering the same thing about Bailey because he always said he didn’t understand why they only had Hughes using two pitches.
From what I have seen of Hughes, it’s always been just fastball, curve, so I agree with Steve that I would like to see another pitch.
Good info with the YS and LH batter stats for Hughes Steve.
Baileywalk?
He’s been hanging out at Ken Davidoff’s blog:
http://tinyurl.com/6hjlcr
I’m guessing that someone (me?) ticked him off here and he’s boycotting us. His last post here was on July 1st.
~~Good info with the YS and LH batter stats for Hughes Steve.~~
Thanks
baileywalk is an interesting guy. He does like to dish it out, but he doesn’t like to take it nearly as well. Otherwise he s a pretty good poster.
Whatever happened to Baileywalk?
—————————–
I’ve been wondering that myself. He’s my go-to guy on this site. He and I agree on nearly everything.