GARCIA VS. HUGHES: DUELING BANJOS

I’m a nut for pop culture, what can I say. The title's silly, but hopefully you became curious and wanted to check out what the hell I’m talking about. For the record, this title lends itself to alittle clever photo-shopped piece by the Bronx Goblin…where are you bro?

Anyway, not to get off track but the reality is, this has nothing to do with the dueling banjos scene from Deliverance, it creeped me out anyway, and everything to do with Yankee competition. Now that AJ Burnett is in Pittsburgh, we are 1 starter less, and now Freddy Garcia and Phil Hughes need to step it up and see who the best man for the job will be...after all, we need a 5th starter. Girardi talked about it HERE. Spring is the place to do it and don’t forget, it was practically set in stone last year before a pitch was thrown that Garcia would probably emerge as the Yankees long man, in fact, he asked for it...memory lane HERE. Then he impressed many, so much that he became a pretty decent starting pitcher again for the New York Yankees going 12-8 with a 3.62 ERA. I have friends that had no faith in Freddy before last season and now they can’t wait to see him on the mound again. That’s a good thing... Freddy seized the moment.

Phil Hughes on the other hand has a lot to prove right now. After a season of injury and loss of velocity and who the hell else knows, 2012 will be a big test. No doubt the New York Yankees love him, but can he make them fall IN love with him again, or will this be the end of a long run for the Golden Boy? Will this be the season that determines if the Yankees want to keep him around or will he be the guy that just never gave them what they anticipated when he came up through the ranks. Don’t forget, he was once compared to Roger Clemens... read HERE. But injury really messed with this poor guy and don’t dismiss what Bill Masse, a former Yankees minor league coach said about the way they babied Hughes in the minors. Mark my words, no one's talking about this, but Bleeding Yankee Blue is, because it’s important. Read WAS BILL MASSE RIGHT ABOUT HUGHES? It’s eye opening and makes you think.

So the competition is on and I can’t wait to see how this rotation is set. No doubt the Yankees have faith in guys like Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda too, and Ivan Nova could bounce back nicely, then again, he could have a struggle this year with an innings increase from 2010 (42 IP) to 2011 (165.1). We will have to see. Then again, don’t dismiss the innings increase issue with Michael Pineda as well. You just never know with these young arms. We’ll break that down for you in another piece at another time. For now though, it’s game on for Garcia and Hughes... that's right... dueling banjos.

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