THE YANKEES PITCHING DILEMMA

Some Yankee pitching moves have been made and some question have popped up as well. Some ideas have also popped up in my mind and I'd love to see if you all have a few ideas of your own. So this is more or less an open forum. Comment in this post, and make sure you vote in our poll on the homepage of Bleeding Yankee Blue. Thanks.

(In Photo: JC Romero)

First up, the Yankees have released JC Romero, the lefty the Yankees signed to a minor league deal. Romero was pitching pretty good considering coming off injury and being released recently by the Nationals. The story is HERE. Apparently he had a 2.92 ERA after 2 outings and he asked the Yankees to either call him up or release him. They released him which means 2 words... Manny Banuelos.

Yeah, I feel it. Manny Banuelos is definitely going to get a big time shot this season by the Yanks coming out of the bullpen as an extra lefty specialist. This can be a tremendous asset for New York or it could blow up in their faces, but to tell you the truth, I’d take that chance. My feeling is, you bring up Manny, you let him work out of the bullpen and see how he is in games and it’s the perfect ending for the season for Manny because it’s exactly how the Yankees started the spring, watching this kid mow them down. The difference is however, these games count.

And on the Hughes front, The Yankees announced that Phil will get the start this upcoming Saturday. The last time we saw Phil Hughes, he showed up in the 10th inning of that 3^rd game between Yankees and Red Sox and it was not a good outing. Yes, Mariano Rivera blew the save, but ultimately it falls on Hughes. It was a big test, and it didn’t work out too good, did it?

This upcoming start will be a big deal. It's against a division rival, the Rays and if he doesn't pitch well, what happens next? Look, I believe that Phil Hughes will help our Yankees, but the question is where? It is clear to me that Ivan Nova will take the starting role if Hughes isn't dominant this weekend and even with all the question marks suddenly surfacing around AJ Burnett, I highly doubt they'd ever move AJ out of the starting rotation for an unstable Hughes. Plus both Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia earned their spots so it is truly unfair to move them out as well.

So, the question is, if Hughes doesn't deliver Saturday, is Scranton the next stop for Hughes? I don't think so, that only leaves the bullpen. It's not my favorite choice either but look, if he can't hack it Saturday, that's really all we have.

If Hughes is great on Saturday, then we have bigger questions. Do we stick with a 6 man rotation? Can we skip AJ Burnett 1 turn in the rotation to get AJ right and utilize Hughes in that spot? Ultimately, a 6 man rotation is great because there are options, but stability is also key for these pitchers and you don't want to mess with their routines either.

What about making Phil Hughes the bullpen 5th inning guy, if for example, a starter can't make it through the 5th inning. Sounds ridiculous right? Hear me out. You can almost utilize him as a long man, but you build up his confidence and strength. You also wouldn't need to use him every day, but over time, you put in him in the game at key moments where he needs to deliver, unlike this past weekend in Boston where he clearly wasn't ready. Plus, if you do that, after him you'd have Luis Ayala, Cory Wade, Boone Logan, RaSo, DRob and Mariano Rivera.

So, what do you think? Should Phil Hughes stay in the rotation? Should Hughes be in the bullpen? Vote in our poll, we want to hear from you. Also, make sure you comment here and keep it clean.

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