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Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
It was the start of another jam, all right. But it was also the sort of moment that Hughes could’ve shown everyone something special. Instead, pitching to new Yankees catcher Chris Stewart, a Triple A call up making his first start, Hughes and Stewart seemed to get their signals crossed for the third time in the game and Hughes threw a wild pitch - not in front of the plate, or in the dirt, but, startlingly enough, off the middle of Stewart’s chest protector as a surprised Stewart couldn’t even get a glove on the ball. That allowed Polanco to skitter to third with no outs.
As Hughes waited at home for Stewart to throw the ball back to him, he clearly looked shaken. First Hughes slapped a fist into his glove. He yelled something. Then he stalked back to the mound, rocked back into his wind up and served up a fat, hanging curveball that Sheffield - a guy who’s playing with two barking shoulders and began the night hitting only .159 - smashed into the leftfield seats, stretching the Tigers’ lead back to three.
Out on the mound, Hughes sagged. When asked later if he thought Hughes’ troubles are mental, Yankees manager Joe Girardi didn’t answer directly. He just said, “You watch the player, see how he goes about his work. He’s frustrated, I’m sure. We’ll watch him closely . . . Sometimes it looks like he’s trying to do too much. Sometimes he’s rushing a little bit . . . For Phil, he’s gotta fight. You’ve gotta fight.”
I too miss Art Howe’s dull face.
Repoz
Posted: April 30, 2008 at 07:36 AM | 50 comment(s)
Related News: General, NY Yankees
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Thing to watch for: whether Rassner's schedule gets aligned with Phil's (as he's almost surely the first choice to come up from Scranton)
Young pitchers struggle at times. This should not be news to the Yankees.
Edit: you beat me to the point AZ. Seriously, though, did they HAVE to use the new catcher right away with a pitcher that's having so much trouble finding his groove?
well, one of those three already has, albeit in a smaller role. So, one month into the season, batting .333 isn't too bad.
If he does, the Yanks might be more willing to give Phil a chance to straighten himself out....
Maybe. I said throughout the winter that in terms of a 2008 push, they should have triggered on the trade and signed Mike Cameron to a one-year deal to replace Cabrera. Santana and Wang at the top of the rotation would look awfully good right now.
But, what they did make a look a lot better in 2009 and 2010, or even later this year, and 2008 may not be their year anyway even with Santana.
I do agree with the statement about prospects. I thought these guys as 2008 assets were oversold because they're Yankees, although it's early.
Of course, a lot of this depends how Kennedy pitches his next start. Frankly, I'd send Hughes down today.
If I were the Yankees, actually, I would put Kennedy ahead of Hughes on the patience scale. I thought the umpire squeezed him into the middle of the plate in his first disasterous start. His second outing was the infamous rain/relief appearance. His third outing was pretty good - 3 ER in 6 innings. His fourth was very bad. His fifth was okay, I thought -- 3 ER in 5 innings. He's been walking too many guys, but he's shown a much stronger ability than Hughes to maintain his composure and wriggle out of jams.
Hughes looked much more hittable last night than Kennedy has at any point. A lot of the hits Kennedy has surrendered have been dinks and dunks. Hughes was serving them up last night -- I think his performance was a perfectly suitable excuse to send him down now. He looks terrible.
On edit: or, y'know, what RB said.
This is the luxury of being a bad, non-contending team. A non-contending team can keep sending out a struggling pitcher every fifth day, without worrying that he's killing the team's chances. They know that there might be a great reward down the line, and the risk is low.
But with a team like the Yankees (or any similar team that is both somewhat old and expected to contend), they can't punt the season by sending out a guy to get clobbered once or twice a week.
That's easy to say now, but when one of your five starters get to pitch all year, and puts up Jose Lima-like stats, and you miss the playoffs by three games, it isn't easy to swallow, particularly knowing that Posada/Jeter/Giambi/Abreau/Rivera/Matsui/Damon/Mussina aren't getting any younger.
Bobby Sprowl? Still, point taken. The only problem I see here is Hank. Girardi and Cashman may be willing to let Hughes struggle, but at what point does Hank blow his stack and say, "We can't afford to **** away games by letting this kid work his problems out in the majors"?
Bobby Murcer?
Young players have to learn how to deal with failure. Hughes has never really struggled. He's not going to learn that in the minors. Take your lumps with him now and hope he makes up the three games in the second half once he's over that developmental hump.
I think you have to find a balance and I think you have to consider the available alternatives. The Yankees can't let Hughes get pounded all season, but I do think you have to give him more than a month, especially considering that the alternatives to Hughes are pretty speculative bets themselves.
How was HK?
And how about those Lakers?
Most likely, it was Girardi and/or Eiland.
-- MWE
6Ks, 4BBs isn't exactly awe inspiring. Jon Lester may still develop, but yesterday wasn't the big sign of a turnaround.
And 1 hit. A 0.625 WHIP isn't inspiring?
It was great. The wife and I caught up, patched a few things up, and went over to Macau for a day. MGM Grand just opened a new hotel there 4 months ago and it wasy barely occupied so we stayed in the Rainman suite for about $300.00 a night. The food was phenomenal and very reasonably priced. You get 4* meals over there for 3* prices.
Re: the Lakers. I was more impressed at how the Nuggets rolled over than how the Lakers played. It floored me that Karl's contract was revewed after that pathetic performance. They should put a dog collar and a leash on 'Melo and Iverson. I've never seen a team more unprepared to play.
Was he there researching prostitutes?
The Hughes/Kennedy vs. Lester/Buchholz argument seems to have been settled early, at least insofar as 2008 is concerned.
I don't think I agree with this. It's April, for God's sake. Too early to call.
Except the Celtics in Atlanta. ;-
I saw a note on Rotoworld that Hughes was having trouble with blurred vision during night games, could that be why he seems to cross up his catcher so much?
This is Stewart's first year with the Yankees, so no.
He also has more walks than strikeouts so far this year
See, it's that sort of win-RIGHT-NOW thinking that's gotten the Yankees into the predicament they're in, if you can call winning the division 7 of the last 8 seasons an actual problem -- they're continually plugging holes to stave off the flood (of failure, of course), instead of just building a brand new foundation. In the long run, I'd think playing the kids and missing the playoffs one year (or, god forbid, winning the Wild Card 2 years in a row oh the shame) to guarantee future success (as much as that can be guaranteed) would be worth more than just making the playoffs w/ a bunch of rentals and signees and getting bounced in the first round every year.
Hmm. Looked good yesterday against an offense that hasn't been hitting at all. He's still a middling starter IMO. I don't think any team fears him.
A few things.
1. The win-RIGHT-NOW mentality has produced 12 straight playoff appearances.
2. This team is old, but its still got lots of offensive talent. I'm guessing this is the best chance they have of winning for the next few years, not the worst. As the offense (and Rivera and Pettite) continue to age, their chances will get worse.
3. Missing the playoffs this year by playing Hughes, etc., will not guarantee future success.
4. The playoffs are largely a crapshoot IMO (I know a lot of people here disagree, but the concept of sample size matters in the post season, just as much as it does in the regular season.
And his defensive effort was Kiki Vanderweghe pathetic.
#### 'em. They deserved to lose for the next decade before they are allowed back in the playoffs.
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