MAKING AN ARGUMENT FOR PHIL HUGHES

Throughout all the talk about AJ Burnett getting traded read HERE, I’ve noticed Twitter has had a ton of interesting, sometimes funny tweets in reference to the AJ Burnett and the Pirates potential deal that has apparently stalled. I also read several that ask the simple question:

Why should Phil Hughes get a pass and not AJ Burnett?

It got me thinking because if you look at 2011, Phil Hughes was a hot mess and real disappointment. In reality, since he’s been pro member of the New York Yankees, he’s had his struggles and over all, many of his seasons have been disappointing with just a few bright spots… and oh yeah, his great 18 win season in 2010 was pretty sweet as well. So it got me thinking too, Should Phil Hughes be lumped in with AJ Burnett? Should Hughes get a pass?

Look, I love Phil Hughes, after all, he’s been our Yankees Golden Boy for years and we have always have had high hopes. He’s much younger than AJ Burnett and there is still plenty of time to mold the kid into a stellar and consistent pitcher, So I guess if you needed hope for Phil Hughes, that’s where I would start. Then I got to thinking about his record in pinstripes. Since he came up with the Yankees, He’s had a career record of 36-23 with a 4.46 ERA. That’s 5 seasons in the pros, 120 games of starter and relief appearances and over 443 innings pitched. He’s racked up 370 strikeouts. Click his name to really break it down from Baseball-Reference, the greatest site ever. OK, so there you go.

Looking at AJ Burnett the past 5 years, and this includes his time in Toronto, Burnett has the following numbers: 62-53 with a ERA of about 4.78 (if it's not dead on, it's close.) That's 920 strikeouts in about 970 innings pitched. I know what your thinking... it's not fair...AJ didn’t pitch on the Yankees for 2 years of this tally and you know what? You’re right, so now let’s break down Hughes and Burnett from 2009 to 2011.

• From 2009-2011, Phil Hughes has a 31-16 record in 337 IP, 159 earned runs and a 4.24 ERA.

• From 2009-2011, AJ Burnett has a 34-31 record in 584 IP, 311 earned runs and a 4.79 ERA.

This includes Hughes 18 game season with the Yankees and relief work. This includes 3 seasons of Burnett as a Yankee starter only. Ultimately, if you look at the record, wins are wins and while AJ has more, his losses are ridiculously high. In a nutshell, Burnett's won only 3 games more than losses in his 3 years with the Yankees. That’s terrible.

Sure, now you could argue that Phil Hughes was relief in 2009 and the numbers aren’t fair, but I just wanted to simply point out that if you look at wins and losses alone, the numbers are dramatic. Let me also point out that if you analyze AJ Burnett’s numbers in his entire career, he only reached the 18 win milestone 1 time in 2008. Not exactly the making of an ace in 13 seasons. Sure, Phil Hughes only reached 18 wins once too, but he’s only in his 5^th pro season…he’s young… there’s time and that’s my point to all of this.

AJ Burnett is nearing the end of his career, sad but true. Sure, pitchers pitch into the 40’s and learn to re-invent themselves and stay successful and I have no doubt that if AJ Burnett wants to, he can break down his mechanics and do the same thing, but it’s clear to me that AJ Burnett was never a superstar and I often think about this... how in the world was he so successful in 2008 going 18-10 with 231 strikeouts? Why couldn't he get back to that form? It's interesting. Look, at least I understand the Yankees thinking with Phil Hughes… there’s time and there’s hope and that's why I believe the Yankees are giving Phil Hughes a pass. You see potential with Phil Hughes numbers… with AJ Burnett… I think they’ve seen enough.

Now you can look at this post and rip me for not being thorough enough with the numbers. Bottom line, I’m not going to sit here and confuse everyone. Quite simply, wins and ERA are old school and important because when you look at that, you know exactly how much these pitchers have won for a ball club and how many runs crossed the plate while they were on the mound. Reviewing that alone provides the answer… for this post at least.

The result, Hughes should get a pass… AJ Burnett shouldn’t… not on the New York Yankees anyway.

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