DETROIT - Who says the Yankees do not have young players who have some talent?
I’m sorry to interrupt another edition of Red Sox ball washing to bring to you a little bit of balance into this argument.
Over the last week, as the team was licking their wounds after being embarrassed by Boston at Fenway Park, a lot was made (and I even made the claim) that the Red Sox far exceeded the output of the youth in comparison to the Yankees.
Now, while this is still true, all it has taken is a matter of a few games to slowly move the teeter-totter in a more balanced direction with still a long way to go.
It is in one of their early dark moments of the season when they needed some help, and they were able to get it from an unexpected source that made his return trying to amends for a fallen past.
Enter: Phil Hughes
In Detroit, with the team having lost four games in a row and with the appearance that things may be spiraling a bit out of control, the Yankees were forced to call up Phil Hughes to the big club to replace Chien-Ming Wang whose ineffectiveness landed him in the disabled list.
The excuses…err, injury they are saying is his hip, but that was merely an excuse to take him out of the rotation before he was promptly lit up again.
Hughes last season was given a spot in the starting rotation automatically without having to earn it. The thinking was that he had shown enough in his short time during the 2007 season (despite missing three months with a hamstring injury he suffered in Texas while throwing a no-hitter). His great performance in Game 3 of the AL Division against the Cleveland Indians after Roger Clemens came up limp and had to depart in the third inning endeared to the brass he could start from Day 1 and be a consistent starter going into the 2008 season.
The Yankees thought so much of his that when the team was trying to acquiring then Minnesota Twins starter Johan Santana, they would not include Hughes in the deal. This seemed like crazy at the time. Why not trade for the best pitcher in baseball even it meant giving up your number one prized prospect? However, Brian Cashman saw fit (either by arrogance or stubbornness) not to trade the right-hander.
When Hughes flopped last year by pitching terribly, not winning a game and missing nearly four months with a fractured rib. And knowing that they couldn’t trust him going forward until shown otherwise, the team went ahead and paid out $243 million combined for AJ Burnett and CC Sabathia to ensure no such problems.
How bad did the decision look? Look at this way, Santana had never made a trip to the disabled list in his career while Hughes had already visited it twice and spent multiple months on it, while Santana was traded to the rival Mets, and continued his domination under their noses.
The (ugly) results:
Hughes: Eight starts, 0-4, 6.62 ERA, 34 innings
Santana: 34 starts, 16-7, 2.53 ERA, 234 innings
Hughes now had to work his way back.
The team publicly said they had faith, but privately they weren’t stupid. Hughes needed to prove he could pitch effectively at the major league level and couldn’t take the same risk twice. He pitched well in spring training and did a great job at Scranton Wilkes-Barre during the month of April. The plan would have been to allow him to build up arm strength and refine his pitches.
This was right up until the Yankees had some issues of their own. Wang was going to leave for a while to “figure things out”, the team had lost four games in row and the Red Sox appeared set to run away and hide if they didn’t get a win on Tuesday night.
No pressure, right?
Taking the ball under pressure in this fishbowl, Hughes set out to write a new script to his inconsistent career marked by speed bumps and slick tires.
His physical frame looked bigger than the last we saw him. It was apparent that he made a commitment to becoming stronger and conditioned better in order to prevent future injuries.
From the start, he came out crisp. He was always known for his control despite not having it last year (3.97 walks per nine innings) and pounded the zone with strikes. His velocity was good. Last year he was coming in between 88 and 91 MPH, instead he was throwing 92-93 consistently. He was also working in a new cutter that learned as he was making his recovery last season, and was inducing easy groundballs from left-handed hitters.
When the heat and the cutter wasn’t enough to freeze hitters, in came his filthy hook that made them look silly.
He struck out four over the first three innings and in a situation that was not to have much pressure; Hughes was now forced to match zeroes with Tigers starter Edwin Jackson who had his best stuff going that night as well.
You waited for that inning when he would lose control and fall apart. It was bound to happen at some point you figured.
Nope.
Hughes, nicknamed by me last year “The Franchise”, pitched like every bit of one. The Yankees would score eight runs in the seventh inning after Jackson left the game, salting away Hughes first win since September 2007. His final line of six innings, two hits, no runs and six strikeouts (only two walks) was more than enough to give him the rest of the evening to soak in the glory of his triumphant return.
While he may have been gone, his performance on Tuesday alerted the Yankees he is not to be forgotten. He will have several more starts as Wang gets healthy, but if he continues to pitch well, it will put the Yankees to make some difficult decisions.
I am sure all parties involved will not mind.
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