Hughes or Joba?

July 17, 2007 by Mike Axisa 7 Comments

This is a couple of days old, so you may have seen it already. My bad for missing it.

Anywho, John Sickels asks a pretty interesting question over at his blog:

True or False:

Joba Chamberlain will win more major league games in his career than Phil Hughes. Discuss.

I recommend checking out the discussion in the comments, there’s some good stuff there.

As for me, I say FALSE because, well, Hughes is the better pitcher. His control is better, his command is better, his secondary stuff is better, he’s been healthierÂ (Phil’s had some pretty fluky injuries), and I like his delivery better. Hughes has a chance to have one of thoseÂ “15+Â wins a year for 15 straight years” kind of runs. That said, Joba’s got a chance to do some serious damage, like 250+ K in a year.

Long story short, I think Hughes has a longer career with more wins, while Joba has a greater peak with moreÂ “holy crap” moments.Â Â

C-Note

Hughes
Steve

Baseball America just posted their midseason top 25 prospects. Hughes graduated from the list, and Joba is already #9!
dan

can someone post the link to that if its not subscriber only?
dan

nevermind…. its subscriber only

what # pitcher is he on the list?

and if its not illegal or unethical or something like that, can someone post the top 10 or so?
KAnst

He is #9, if you want to see it someone posted it illegally over at minorleagueball.com in the diaries

As for that question I posted in the comments and said pretty much the exact same thing as you Mike. Joba will probably have the best 3 years of the bunch but Hughes will probably have a more solid and steady career
C-Note

I agree with much of what has been said, but I disagree that JoBA will definately have the more spectacular moments— Hughes in a 20 year old prodigy who can be Johan Santana from the right side— the career described above sounds like a Moose type of career— I would diagree and say that I think multiple Cy Youngs and nasty post season performances are in young Phil’s future

I think with his name, charisma, stuff, being on the Yankees- that JOBA could enter the scene like a Vida Blue, Doc Gooden, Fernandomania type of phenomena

will be interesting to see how this plays out next year… and why do I get the feeling WANG will take the ball quietly every 5th day and win 18-20 games a year during the prime of his career and be the forgotten ACE
RobinCT

Hughes, clearly. But it’s nice to even see the question asked.