WHY HUGHES OUTING NOT EXACTLY HUGHES YET

It was just a glimpse but maybe, just maybe Phil Hughes is on the road back to where he was in 2010. His fastball against the Pittsburgh Pirates was clocked at 92 and 93 mph and according to Marc Carig HERE, Phil Hughes was happy and knew last year was a bust early on:

"I certainly feel better than last spring... Things weren't 100 percent, I knew that."
Look, I've always been skeptical trying to calculate this early on whether or not you will be 100% by Opening day and beyond, but Hughes knows his body dude and feels better... that's evident. Today he pitched 1 2/3 innings and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits. Look...first outing, no panicking, but that being said, I don't see this as a great outing. I see it as a outing that we need to think about. I wonder if he'll get better as time goes on.

There was concern early on that Hughes wasn't taking care of himself at his age and he went hardcore on a new workout regime to correct that. Read HERE. He has new focus and a new confidence and after today, maybe now it's safe to say that everyone can sigh for a moment.

Look, did he win a rotation spot today? No. According to Joe Girardi, Hughes needs to compete for the 5th spot like everyone else. I like that attitude, make it a competition. A few weeks ago Andrew Marchand floated a silly story about how the Yankees already signed off on Phil Hughes on their 5th spot guy, read HERE, a story I called irresponsible. I still believe that, read WHY MISGUIDED HUGHES SPECULATION GETS US NOWHERE. If the Yankee brass wanted that out there, I consider that unprofessional and I don't believe they did. If Marchand put it out there because he was trying to get the scoop, that's silly, there are people involved in that decision, like Freddy Garcia. I felt bad for Freddy Garcia in that situation. Luckily, it was revealed yesterday the Freddy Garcia just wants to pitch, but he definitely wants a face chance to win the 5th rotation role too. Read HERE. Now I'm just rambling... back to the Yankees and Hughes for a moment...

The Yankees lost today 7-4 and to the Pirates and that's not a big deal, it's the Spring, but Twitter's funny man... there's a ton of Yankee fans that expressed deep concern already. I just say, we need to look at Spring as building blocks, nothing more. Spring is where we work out the kinks. CC Sabathia started today and went 2 innings giving up 1 run on three hits. But I can't stop thinking about Phil Hughes...is he truly on the road back? No question he feels better, but time will tell if this guy is really back. Let's hope so.

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