WHY THE PEN IS WHERE HUGHES BELONGS

(Photo: Getty)
Mark Feinsand has the story first HERE, and I suggested it a few weeks ago in WHY I'D MOVE HUGHES TO THE PEN. It makes sense to put Phil Hughes in the bullpen. No, this isn't a long term decision according to the Yankees, but it is for this Yankees / Red Sox series at least. Then, they'll re-evaluate. To be quite honest, this is a good test, especially if Hughes gets work out of the pen this weekend.

Phil Hughes gets mixed reviews by Yankee fans. Many are frustrated and don't believe the hype, others love the Golden Boy and just want him to succeed no matter what. Me? I just feel as though you can't just force the kid to be a starter if he's not. Now, don't misunderstand me; Hughes was huge for us in 2010, winning 18 games, but as many predicted, like Tom Verducci (Read HERE), there would definitely be work load issues for Phil Hughes in 2011. He was right and "dead arm" occurred. Couple that theory with the former Yankee player and manager Bill Masse who thought they babied Phil Hughes when he was down in the minors and we may be onto something. (In Photo: Bill Masse)
Read WAS BILL MASSE RIGHT ABOUT HUGHES? In it, Masse said this about the treatment of Hughes in the minors:

“We get so ridiculous with this dumb pitch count stuff… Somebody came up with a pitch count thing (like) this is going to decide if a kid’s arm is going to be healthy or not. It’s like predicting the weather sometimes. ‘If he throws 66 pitches, he will be fine, but if he throws 81, he is going to get hurt.’ No one can predict that.

The only negative you run into is that he never learns how to pitch when he is tired. He never learns how to pitch when he is a little bit fatigued. I think you run into those problems because he is always fresh. Also, he is never in trouble. He needs to learn how to pitch out of his second or third jam in the seventh inning with two outs and he’s throwing 90 mph instead of 94.”

Look, I don't take myself too seriously, there are plenty of people out there that have their own theories about Phil Hughes, This is mine. Use Phil as you need him, especially this season. Get him back to full strength. Maybe he will be back as a starter. maybe he's a reliever like he's proven for the Yankees in 2009. But what do I know, I'm just a blogger.

Clearly one of the main reasons the Yankees may move Hughes to the pen is because of the 6 man rotation they currently have. CC Sabathia has 16 wins, Freddy Garcia and Ivan Nova have 10 wins each, AJ Burnett has 8 wins, Bartolo Colon has 8 as well. Phil Hughes was out half the season nursing a "Dead arm" issue and has a record of 2-3 with a 6.93 ERA. To me, I say, let him work his way back, build his arm strength and see how he does out of the pen. Why take the others out of the rotation for someone who hasn't earned it.

Look, for all I know in 3 days Girardi may decide to move Nova back down to Scranton after the weekend, but to me, Nova earned his spot, he's done everything asked of the Yankees this year and he's proving himself. Hughes hasn't base it on a mystery illness, bad starts or whatever, bottom line, it's August. And think about this... Feinsand points out if after this weekend. Hughes comes out of the bullpen, Nova could then be put IN the bullpen and then there will be question marks on what to do next with AJ Burnett in his next start. To be honest, we don't need this in my opinion, we need stability in our rotation, it helps with confidence in pitchers. We used to laugh at Mike Mussina because he needed a schedule. He needed to pitch when he was supposed to pitch so he could concentrate on his ritual on throwing days. Maybe he was onto something. In my opinion, right now we need consistency and rhythm, not uncertainty. That's all I'm saying.

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