WHY HUGHES NEEDS A TIME OUT

I love my New York Yankees and take every loss very personal. It just kills me to see them lose a game, especially to the Red Sox. Now, I know losses are part of this game and there will be dozens more after today, but something about today’s loss really alarmed me. I’m sure you all know where I am going with this. Yep, Phil Hughes and Boone Logan. Now Logan I am not as concerned about because he is a specialist and his role will fluctuate in importance, but we cannot have our #3 starter pitch this bad! Here’s my take…(Photo: Getty)
Phil Hughes still has NO velocity on his fastball. That's shocking to me. During the YES broadcast today, Flash and Leiter kept talking about how Hughes arm needs to be stretched out. How he needs to get his pitch count up in order for that velocity to pick up. Sorry, I am not buying that. Let’s say Flash and Leiter are right... that Hughes needs to pitch more in order for his velocity to pick up, well, that’s fine, but why do we have to let him “prepare” his arm at the expense of regular season losses? Here's an idea, let's send him down to SWB so he is guaranteed to pitch every 4 or 5 days and they can let him throw as many pitches as it takes until the velocity comes back? Why would the New York Yankees allow a guy to get his arm right and cost us valuable regular season wins? If you are going to allow him to do that, when is enough enough? At what point do the Yankees pull the plug and say, "Okay, maybe we need to send him down." Why wait? Lets do it now because if all he needs is a higher pitch count then let him throw to quality hitters down at SWB where wins and losses don’t mean a thing!

Let me make this clear, I love Phil Hughes and, just like all of us, I want that dude to succeed. He is so likable and seems like he loves the Pinstripes. I am in no way suggesting we get rid of him. Let’s get him right and then bring him back into this rotation. It's funny, in Casey's post this morning WHY WE NEED TO BURY BOSTON, he predicted this pitching outcome. If it's clear to a couple of bloggers like us, why isn't it clear to Yankee brass?

Anyway, there was lots of action in today’s game against the Red Sox. Here are some other observations I made:

Bright spots

• Brett Gardner: The man was on fire today. Just slapping the ball all of the field and tearing up the base paths, Casey's love...speed. It was a thing of beauty and you can just tell he is only getting warmed up!

• Bartolo Colon: I am done with the “big boned” jokes, for now. My man Colon was just stinging Martin’s mitt today. Popping 94 mph fastballs like it was nobody’s business. Don’t be shocked if he is replacing Hughes, soon, at least temporarily.

• Curtis Granderson: Had some solid at bats today and seems to be very comfortable hitting at Fenway. Good sign for the Yankees.

• A-Rod: Just loved the way the guy handled himself today. Very composed and patient at the plate and that blast he hit in the 5^th I hear just landed.

• Robinson Cano: It's official, Cano is now on track for his first batting title. I am calling it today, Robinson Cano wins 2011 AL Batting Title. Remember this.
  

Some not-so-bright-spots

Obviously Hughes is the big one but the other issue that I am a bit concerned about is our defense. It's not like we are making errors, it just seems that we are not making plays so far this year that we would normally make. The two biggest culprits of this are Tex and Swish. Tex has a ball go under his glove today in a big spot in the game. Again, it's not an error and it wasn’t even really a routine play, but it’s a play he makes 99.99% of the time. And today, the ball he missed led to Youk going from 1^st to 3^rd and then scoring on a 2 out single. To me it was the turning point of the game. I’m sure he will be the first to acknowledge this and will probably be taking extra ground balls tomorrow. And Swish, well, he just seems lost out on RF this year, so far. Granted, he was never a gold glove outfielder but I thought he really turned things around last year. This year he just seems more confused about fly outs, hitting cut off men, etc.

Final Score today, Boston 9 - Yankees 6
Look, I‘m already over today‘s debacle. Time to move on to Game two and win this series. After all, it's all about winning series, right? Let‘s go Yankees!

--Mikey Blue, BYB Senior Writer
Twitter @MikeyBlu23


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