Yankees Daily

Yankees not getting Cliff Lee is good for Phil Hughes and possibly the Yankees in the long run.

Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. If the Yankees got Cliff Lee, who was going to the pen? Phil Hughes or Javier Vazquez? You know Javier Vazquez is not going to the pen. All he knows how to do is start. Phil Hughes has experience in the pen so you know he would of been the guy to go. Like Andrew Marchand of ESPN said, A six-man rotation was a possibility, albeit an unlikely one. if Cliff Lee came to the Yankees.

After all of those innings built up to be a starter and to be a productive starter, Phil Hughes going to the pen would of been a big time shame. The guy has 11 wins and is one of the best starters in baseball. If he went back to the pen, it might of ruined his confidence and stunted his growth. In the long run, the Yankees would of been hurt especially with Andy Pettitte’s retirement’s in the near future.

Did the Yankees really want to trade Javier Vazquez if they got Lee? You never have enough pitching “especially” since they are watching Phil Hughes’ innings and a starter can go down with an injury at any time.

Phil Hughes won’t win 20 games this year. I can guarantee that. What he will win is the confidence of the Yankees’ brass and the Yankees’ fans in being one of the best starters in the American League.

Next year? A different story. The training wheels will be off of Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte might retire and Javier Vazquez might not be re-signed. Then the Yankees can make a full pledged pitch at Cliff Lee in the off season and prevent him from going to the Red Sox. We know the Rangers won’t be able to sign him because of their ownership problems.

Cliff Lee not coming to the Yankees can only help Phil Hughes in contract negotiations as well. If he remains a starter and remains productive, expect a big pay day for him.

Phil Hughes has had a great year thus far. He is 10-2 with a 3.83 ERA and 86 strike outs. The decision he has to make is this… Is he going to come out with the same fire, the same attitude he did when he started the season? What I’m “not” hoping for is a mental collapse. Will he hold it together and be a pitcher Joe Girardi will rely on in the playoffs or will Joe have to go to a three man rotation again like he did last year when the Yankees won the World Series?

I don’t see the Yankees winning the World Series with only three pitchers again. One of the three won’t be as good and probably not as lucky. Phil Hughes is going to have to be the ace he was the first half of the season if the Yankees want continued success in the playoffs.

Let’s look at his stats in April. Three games started, 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA. He gave up a total of six hits in three games. That was a dominant April. We still weren’t sure of Phil Hughes until May.

In May he started six games, went 4-1 with a 3.03 ERA. We all thought we had a super star on our hands and we still might. So now he’s 6-1 with a 2.70 ERA and his only loss was to the Mets after beating Boston twice in the same month.

Then June and a start in July happened. His ERA was 7.05. if you combine June and the start in July. Because of the Yankees offense he went 5-1 during this time. The question you have to ask yourself is what happens when the Yankees’ bats go quiet for a period of time? It does happen and when it does, is Phil Hughes going to step up his game? Will he pitch like an ace and live up to the “one” status that he was tagged with when he was in the minor leagues?

If you remember, every one in Yankees land had Phil Hughes tagged as the next Yankees great pitcher, you know, the “one.” It was supposed to be him, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy, the trio of superstar pitchers that would take us to the next level. Joba Chamberlain has turned into an inconsistent middle relief pitcher and Ian Kennedy is now pitching for Arizona and going nowhere fast.

We’ll need Phil Hughes to pitch well in the second half. I believe he is the x factor on the Yankees success this year. If Phil Hughes pitches well, we’ll win. If he doesn’t, see the Yankees go after Cliff Lee in 2011.(They’ll probably go after him anyway)

Robinson Cano and Phil Hughes are now the players who the Yankee scouts thought they would turn into. Both of them have arrived. Yankee fans? Here they are.

Not only are they the players the Yankees thought they would be but they just might be the best players on the Yankees. Not only on the Yankees, but in the whole league. Imagine that? The best pitcher and best hitter on the New York Yankees?

The stats speak for themselves. Robinson Cano. Phil Hughes.

Robinson Cano leads the the major leagues in batting average at .373. He’s sixth in home runs in the AL with 12. Third in RBI with 42. He leads the major leagues in hits with 78. Doesn’t seem that every time up that he’s going to get a hit? Yankee fans? Robinson Cano’s time has come. He is here. Here he is.

He gives great protection to A-Rod in the lineup. Pitchers now have to pitch to A-Rod more than ever because if they walk him, they have to face Robinson Cano with runners on base. A scary proposition.

When you compare pitching, you can’t compare both because National League pitchers get to face the pitcher.

In the American League, Phil Hughes’ ERA is fourth at 2.54. He is second in wins with seven to David Price’s eight but Hughes only has one loss. He averages just about a strike out an inning with 64.

The great thing about Phil Hughes is that no one gets on base against him. If you look at the top 10 pitchers in ERA in the American league that pitched at least 10 games, Phil Hughes has only allowed 47 hits. The other pitchers have given up over 50.

The best thing about Robinson Cano and Phil Hughes is that the Yankees “developed” them. They are from the farm. The Yankees organization along with Brian Cashman and the scouting directors have to be proud of what they’ve done.

There was also a time where I called Phil Hughes the “franchise blogger” because he had a blog and he wasn’t pitching well. Boy, did he ever shut me up. He’s turned into one of my favorite players.

Like Dennis Green would say… They are who we THOUGHT they were!

So I’m searching the internet and some how I find my way over to ESPN and I see an article that headlines this… Yanks to decide on new Hughes Rules Supposedly the Yankees are going to give Hughes two weeks off but they would be spread out. The reason for this is that they don’t want to burn him out.

It makes sense. He’s young and I don’t want to see him broken down by the end of the year. This will be his first full year throwing a starter’s amount of innings. The Yankees say that the rules won’t be as radical as the “Joba rules.”

The Yankees haven’t revealed how many innings Hughes will pitch, but Hughes thinks it is around 175. Hughes has thrown 49 2/3 innings entering his start on Friday.

and…

The big part of the Yankees’ Hughes Rules will come around the All-Star break. At that point, the Yankees will likely have Hughes start as many as four days before the break, then coupled with the four-day All-Star intermission, a three-game series to begin the second half and yet another scheduled day off, Hughes could easily have nearly two weeks off in July.

I like what Brian Cashman added at the end of the article. He said that Hughes is one of the best pitchers in the league and the Yankees want to keep him that way for a long time.

Yankees fans? Yankees nation…. The Yankees have a five headed monster on their roster. Let me clue you in on this colossus giant I’m talking about. Let me tell you who’s part of this five headed, monster. This, this, THING!! C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, Javier Vazquez and Phil Hughes.

Phil Hughes joined the crew last night. I got word from my sources. I got word that he almost threw a perfect game. I heard that since he joined the crew, the Yankees will be an unstoppable force. Did you hear that? Well I just told you.

The Yankees pitching staff only has 48 runs against. That’s tied with the Minnesota Twins with the least amount of runs scored against. Are you ready for this stat? Are you sure? Please hold onto a railing or something so you don’t fall over in disbelief. Ready? The Yankees pitching staff along with their bullpen has not let in more than three runs in any game this year. I told you that you couldn’t handle it. Now thank me for warning you.

The trio we usually count on, C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte are in the top 20 in the American league in ERA. Pettitte at 1.35, Burnett at 2.37 and Sabathia at 2.84. Words can’t describe that. It’s too great for words. The Yankees are transcending the GAME! The game of course is Yankees baseball.

You see, you can’t stop the monster. It’s too ginormous. Taking it on would be a monumental task on YOUR part. Please, talk to the hand. I defy anyone, I mean ANYONE to prove to me that this team will not win the division this year. Yankees fans? Welcome aboard.

My fellow Yankee fans. My fellow New York Yankees fans. I was watching the same thing you were last night so I know you can feel where I’m coming from. If you watched Phil Hughes’ body language, he “looked” like a pitcher. He looked, well, he looked, “legit.” Like he belonged. He belonged on that mound. He owned the mound. It was his. Phil Hughes is now authorized to be the fifth starter.

He knew that the Angels are a good change up hitting team. He also knew that the reason why he became the fifth starter was because of the development of his change up. Guess what? He hardly used his change up against the Angels. What Phil Hughes did was use his gift. His gift of a having a higher intellect. Since the Angels were good at hitting change ups, he threw them fastballs and curveballs and then he punished, lambasted and hammered them with cutters.

That’s what Phil Hughes did. He brought the hammer down. It was like a riot act what Phil Hughes did to the Angels with his cutter. He trashed them, he walloped them and he trounced them back to the dugout with their head between their legs.

As we look toward the future… The future of not having Andy Pettitte because retirement is coming or not having Javier Vazquez because he’ll be a free agent.. we look towards Phil Hughes who will most likely be the third starter behind CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett.

As we look towards Phil Hughes, what we see is good. We see the positive, Yankee fans. Phil Hughes is developing into a quality starting pitcher and that is very good.

In case some of you were living under a rock during the announcement, Joe Girardi picked Phil Hughes as his fifth starter for the 2010 New York Yankees baseball season.

Here’s the thing. Can you guess what happens tonight? Can you? That’s right, you guessed it. Phil Hughes will start on short rest against the big, bad Philadelphia Phillies. Is Hughes ready? Will he get his game on? Will he show Joe Girardi that he was the right choice?

Here’s one reason and possibly, I said, “possibly” for Girardi’s choice of Phil Hughes to be “the man.” His improved change up. All spring long the Yankees were looking to see if Phil Hughes was going to improve his change up. Guess what? He did. Amazing, huh?

Ya see Yankee fans, baseball is all about control. Phil Hughes had great control in his 13 innings of work this spring by walking only two batters. You read that right. Two batters in 13 innings of “work.” Saying Phil Hughes got his game on is an understatement. He came, he saw, he kicked you know what like in the movie Ghostbusters.

Joba Chamberlain had a poor spring. Because of his poor spring, he didn’t even impress Joe Girardi enough to be the man for the set up role again. You wait and see however. Once Joba goes to the bull pen. You’ll see a new man. You’ll see some one who is aggressive again and “attacks” batters instead holding back and trying to paint corners like he did as a starter. I just don’t think starting fit the Joba. The Joba will probably be Mariano’s replacement as closer in the future.

Here’s what “we” as Yankee fans don’t want to see at 7:00 PM tonight. Phil Hughes getting rocked. The Yankees are using Phil Hughes probably to prove that he was the right choice. It’s up to Phil now to show them. Will he? I believe he will.

This is amazing. Phil Hughes, the player ready to dominate and show the New York Yankees and their fans what a force he is going to be. I’m ready Hughes. Are you Yankees fans?

I was reading the poll at the NY Daily News this morning and the question was.. Where should Phil Hughes pitch?

The article was comparing Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain saying that they will be competing for the fifth spot. Here’s a picture of the poll…

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I’m surprised by this because last year, if you said that Joba Chamberlain should be in the bull pen and not start, it was like you were insulting some one’s family member. It looks as though a big majority of New York Daily News readers thing Hughes should start and Joba should be relegated to the bull pen.

I even voted for Hughes to be in the bull pen. I’m wondering what changed a lot of fans’ minds? Last year was Joba’s first year as a full time starter. He started 31 games. The year before he started 12. Some pitcher don’t become good until much later than 23 years old which is how old Joba is. CC Sabathia didn’t start dominating until he was 25, 26 years old.

I was always a person who thought Joba should be in the bull pen. My thinking now is, if you’re going to give some one a chance to start, give them a chance. Don’t keep changing things with players by putting them in the bull pen then back to starting again and doing this over and over.

Last night, I was wondering, wow, what if the Yankees traded Phil Hughes to the Twins for Johan Santana or what if the Yankees had Hughes stay in triple A all season? I was happier thinking that Phil was not stuffed in triple A all year more than anything.

Now that Mariano is hurting, Phil Hughes can close for a lot of September and now has experience pitching in big games and will be called upon to pitch in big games in the playoffs.

Hughes has kept a lot of games close for Mariano and I’m sure the Yankees lead over the Red Sox wouldn’t be as great if Hughes didn’t get those eighth inning outs all year long like Mariano did in 1996.

What if Hughes was still in Triple A however? Who would the Yankees counted on for the eighth inning role all year? It was supposed to be Brian Bruney but he has been a failure. That would of been a nightmare if he was the guy.

Then Bruney would of been demoted for another Yankee farm hand who probably wouldn’t of been ready for the eighth inning role. I’m thinking Phil Coke. Coke has been solid at times but he hasn’t been as consistent as Hughes. Coke had a pretty terrible August come to think of it.

Last night was the perfect example of why Phil Hughes is valuable to the Yankees. He came in the game with two outs and the lead shaved to one. He put the fire out and got Melvin Mora to fly out to right-field.

As a starter, Hughes finished with a 5.45 ERA. His ERA is now at 3.16, the second lowest ERA on the Yankees next to Mariano.

The reason for Hughe’s success is only throwing his fastball and curveball to the batters most of the time. He doesn’t nibble and he trusts his stuff than he did as a starter.

If Mariano was to break down and you know his career is coming to an end soon, the Yankees could move Phil Hughes to the closer role which he has been used as on occasion.

I even trashed Hughes all of last year calling him the Phil the “Franchise Blogger” because I thought the only thing he was capable of doing was running a blog and I thought he wasn’t even good at that.

You can now say that Phil Hughes is one of the most valuable players on the Yankees if you really think about it. I’m glad I had to bite my tongue and eat my words. Imagine if the Yankees didn’t have Phil Hughes?