WHY GAME 6 IS HUGHES

If there's 1 thing to think about when it comes to Phil Hughes pitching a Game 6 in the playoffs against the Rangers it's this; Cashman held on to this guy for a reason. Look, Cash could have dealt him like he did Ian Kennedy. He could have kept him in the bullpen this year after a stellar performance in the pen last year. He could have never even brought the kid up from Triple-A and eventually could have been a "player to be named" in a deal for Javy Vasquez this past winter. Who knows. So what's my point? My point is this..... He didn't do any of those things. Why? Because to put simply, Hughes is a good young pitcher on the way to be great, even legendery.

Back in the good ol' days, you stayed in the farm system and played a chunk of your carrer with the same team. These days, you don't come up through the farm system and stay too long anymore. Teams get impatient fast. They want wins NOW. Back in the day, the Yanks had the Core Four, and of course Bernie Williams, all in the farm system. 5 guys who the Yankees believed in and kept and years later, Bernie has 4 rings and Jeet, Jorgie, Mo and Andy have 5. The Yankees believed in those kids, and they believe in this one too. They even believe in Joba, probably partly because they feel alittle responsible for screwing him up, but they know both Phil and Joba can both succeed.

Now, rewind a second. Do you remember Phil Hughes and his second start back in 2007? It was an away game, in Texas of all places. Hughes was on his way to pitching a no-hitter until he got injured. That pitching performance was no fluke. Phil Hughes is the real thing ladies and gentlemen. Fast forward now to Game 3 of the ALDS. THAT performance was the best we've seen of Phil Hughes since that night in Texas 3 years ago. Guess what, Cashman is a genius. It took a while, but Hughes is almost there. That young arm will have an amazing year next year, but it's starting to blossum now. After all, he won 18 games this year.

This is my opinion about Phil; He asks a lot of questions, he watches his veteran teammates and feeds off of them. They pitch great, he does too. He's constantly learning and growing. CC came off a performance where he battled in Game 5, but the team hit and the team won. My gut tells me Phil Hughes will feed off that Game 5 and also win. He has the determination to put together a pitching performance for the ages. I believe that.

We have a lot of Yankee fans down on the team, down on Hughes and full of worry. There cannot be any doubt. I don't want to see the Yankees go home, and the Yankees don't want to go home, and the good news for Yanks fans right now is the team's confidence is high.

The Ranger's Colby Lewis is an obstacle, of course, I get that, but he is not a wall of doubt. He's just another pitcher. Hitting is going to happen. And guess what? Hughes CAN win Game 6, and my feeling is if the team hits, Hughes will shut down the Rangers. And if for some odd reason he can't, we have arms that will... including possibly CC. Put it this way, Hughes is a member of the reigning World Champs... He doesn't know any other way.

Do it Phil, keep the line moving. The Yanks can't do it without you. After all, they wouldn't put you out there if they didn't believe in you. They do, and so do we.

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