Hughes strong in minor league start
ByAfter having his scheduled start on Monday pushed back for reasons unknown, Phil Hughes took the mound against the Pirates’ Triple-A squad yesterday afternoon. He allowed one run on five hits and a walk in five and a third innings, striking out seven. He struck out the side in the first inning on ten pitches, but the fact that he needed that extra pitch cements his status as a bust. Hughes said he expects to get up to 100 pitches in his next start, which will be his last one of the preseason before heading to Triple-A Scranton. “Cutter and changeup is something I really want to get going,” Hughes said. “That will be a big pitch for me, both of those. I don’t think they’re ever going to be go-pitches for me, just something to compliment my fastball and curveball.”
Elsewhere, Alan Horne continued his return from shoulder surgery with two innings in an intrasquad game yesterday. He’s scheduled to throw three innings on Monday.
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Hughes going beastmode in AAA this season would be the tits.
If Hughes is dominating AAA by July, I wonder if the Yankees will consider moving Joba into the pen earlier.
that. will. never. happen. get. over. it.
I hope that was a joke.
UGGGGGGHHHHHHHH.
If Mcpherson is on the roster killing it maybe we’ll move A-rod to center.
Hughes went into more detail about how he uses the cutter: “I can throw it 2-0, 3-1, throw it right down the middle when they’re thinking fastball and it moves just a little bit,” he said. “That’s kind of the purpose of the pitch, not really to put guys away with. Sometimes I’ll run it in on a lefty and try to get the guy to hit a weak ground ball or something, but for the most part it’s for when I’m behind in the count and they’re looking for a pitch to hit.”
Very interesting
Does anyone happen to know if Hughes has gotten much advice from Mo or Pettitte about throwing his cutter?
I’m pretty sure a story would have jumped on it if he had.
I agree, and this is the reason that I felt like they needed Pettitte: to give Hughes and Kennedy time to go to AAA and work on stuff like this. Refining some secondary stuff, refining their approach to hitters so that they don’t become predictable.
Why is Hughes even bothering to keep pitching? Didn’t he get the memo that his career in baseball is over? I mean…he hasn’t even won the Cy Young and he’s already 22. He should ask for his release so he can hope to catch on with the Long Island Ducks or the Nippon Ham Fighters or something.
Bust is spelled H-U-G-H-E-S
Wow, joke played out much?
Nope. Not at all.
nope. but i am getting a bit anti “that was a shot at jeter”
that was a shot at the people who make “that was a shot at Jeter” jokes.
A lot of these jokes get played out pretty quickly, but I must admit, i found “He struck out the side in the first inning on ten pitches, but the fact that he needed that extra pitch cements his status as a bust” to be pretty funny
From a commenter on the site:
Chad, Karstens is Pittsburgh’s #5 starter. I don’t think he’d make SWB’s rotation. SWB may have a better rotation than Pittsburgh. What do you think?
If we say:
Hughes v Maholm
IPK v Snell
Aceves v Duke
Igawa v Ohlendorf
Kontos v Karstens
Its going to come out pretty close.
Heh, thats funny because it’s true.
Eh actually looks like they’re going with Jason Jennings over Kontos….which means it def goes to Pitt
He probably couldn’t have been protected in the Rule 5 draft, which is why he needed to be traded.
I can see Hughes totally taking over Joba / Pettitte if they get hurt and keeping the spot. Not that Im hoping for it, but if he gets a few starts and is just filthy, what do you do? Send him back down? 6 man rotation (can’t really do that with CC in the rotation) It’s about time for him to dominate.
he’ll get his chance next season. i’ve gone back and forth with myself over what to do with hughes, but in the end i think it’s a smart idea to keep him in AAA, especially considering we’ve got Pettitte on a 1 yr. deal. That gives Hughes and Kennedy extra time to actually work on things, develop their pitches and actually learn how to pitch considering their ascent through the yankees’ system.
I think he will get a pretty good “chance” this season, because even if all of the front 5 stay healthy and make their starts, there will be ~75 innings that will need to be thrown by a 6th starter. I think it will be Hughes, provided he’s healthy and effective.
I agree completely. This year both Hughes and IPK need to perfect there location and secondary pitches. Obviously thats always the goal but this year they really need to get that done rather than worrying about stats and throwing there A pitches to B and C hitters.
Sweet! MLB.com is going to allow everyone watch the Friday and Saturday games for free!!!
theyre not ognna be on yes?
Not everyone lives in YES territory
exactly, i live in Colorado
Annoying: I’m pretty sure the surrounding areas get the YES Network but UConn doesn’t put YES on their cable package. I figure dual National Championships is the least they can do for us Yankee fans.
Yeah my friend told me about that. Thats gotta suck
He wasnt too pleased with not getting YES. Worst part is he bought the MLB.TV package to watch games and it’s blacked out for him because that area can get YES. Double whammy.
Yeah, my sophomore year I ordered MLBTV and was actually somehow able to not get blacked out of the games, despite this area getting YES along with my billing address. Then in ’07, I didn’t get any games. Hopefully I can get it this time around. If not, it’s Gameday and my girlfriend (who has the Extra Innings package) relaying me play-by-play. But, only one more month of no Yankees coverage so I guess it’s alright.
You could hook up a slingbox to your girlfriends TV, and then, bam, YES on your computer
I’ve heard great things about slingbox
Extra Innings is a gift from Mo
The surrounding areas do get indeed get YES on through Comcast. I live in Andover, CT and I get it.
How close to Storrs are you?
17 miles from my house to the campus, so sayeth the almighty internet.
They are.
It’s on Mlb network too.
That’s all absolutely great to hear. I’m glad Hughes will be getting another year of seasoning at AAA before joining the rotation next year.
And while we’re on the ssubject of seasoning and top prospects: PSSSSSSSSSSSST: DETROIT TIGERS: YOU DON’T NEED TO RUSH YOUR TOP PROSPECTS.
i know that was spurred by our conversation about porcello.
Yeah, bigmike (is it bad that I still refer to him as that even though I know his real name?) and I were talking about it the other day. Needless to say, he’s not very excited.
Maybe the Tigers do. They’ve a fairly old team and a crappy farm system. They’re totally in “win now” mode.
They’re in a very strange position. They have an older team (or show “old age” tendencies, like Miggy’s inability to play any other position than DH despite his age). They have a gigantic payroll that probably cannot be supported in the near term, but they have no real prospects. I’m not sure they in win now mode, or build for the future mode, because they can do neither.
In other words, they’re the Knicks.
Except that atleast this is the first time in a while where I’ve felt the Knicks are moving in the right direction(or any direction for that matter), I don’t know where the Tigers are going.
What I think you could call the Tigers is the nightmare version of the mid-century Yankees. The Yankees were able to skate by on veteran players but last year showed that the Tigers couldn’t and perhaps the Yankees got a little lucky for it. The Yankees showed it was possible to squeak by with older players and the Tigers showed it wasn’t a given.
lol yea they do! they’re broke and prospects = cheap.
And potentially ruining their best minor leaguer could be more costly in the future. If he’s not hurt, they should just suck it up and put NateRob in the rotation rather than risk ruining their hope for a good pitching future.
Off topic, but does anyone know who is scheduled to pitch for tomorrow nights game??
Wang I know for sure, and someone else too (Pettitte?) or that may be on Saturday after Burnett.
Yeah, Pettitte is supposed to relieve Burnett during the Saturday game. Not sure who’s pitching after Wang tomorrow night.
Finally they are making Pettitte the lefty specialist… it’s about time…
complete game in 80 pitches, he can do it; they intentionally got really tall grass for the 3 pitchers