Hughes makes triumphant return to the rotation
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Apr 15, 2010 
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Phil Hughes returned to the Yankees rotation tonight and got a well-earned win. He allowed three hits and struck out six through five-plus innings. He walked five, four of which came on full counts and none of which came around to score. Robinson Cano went deep twice, Curtis Granderson tripled twice and Derek Jeter had two RBI in a 6-2 Yankees win.
Associated Press photo.
ray
You’re right. IIRC, the Sox had the third best offense away from home last year. Dont know where I heard it, so it could be wrong.
___
A fair final 4 innings from the HP umpire. Pleasure to see.
He needs to put away hitters more and walk less LH hitters, but that could be a consequence of the layoff.
It’s a building block start.
nice start for Phil 3.0
I have no problems with Phil tonight; I figured his command was off and it’s not like he was wild – he was just missing. Obviously he had very good stuff to get 6 strikeouts; I don’t care about the walks because his command will get better. From what I read, he mixed in his pitches very well – that’s the best part of the start.
Betsy
The only real problem I have about the BB is that they were all against LH hitters.
Ben Sheets getting early run support…
Let’s go Ben Sheets!!!!!!
Something else to monitor:
http://www.old-picture.com/civ.....il-War.jpg
It’s a process.
That felt like a long game
Am I imagining it? Was it long or was the Kay/Leiter combo just putting me to sleep?
Rich, the walks still don’t bother me……..and Michael Kay said it’s a concern. I’m sorry, but Phil hadn’t started in a year – he was undoubtedly amped up and most fans think he was squeezed. I can’t wait to NOT tune in to his radio show tomorrow.
Johnny Damon bought the mlb.tv package just to monitor tonight’s developments.
Via i-yankees, Jay-Z suing Ortiz:
http://www.nydailynews.com/gos.....yfort.html
Phil was good, Joba looked ok and we’re getting decent run production without any production from the 3 and 4 hitters. Offense will be scarry when Tex and Arod heat up. Nine hole still a problem, poor Winn doesn’t cover much of the plate, weak swings, an 0 for 4 from left field, oh well.
Also, Rich – I understand, but Phil is a work in progress. It as a very good night to be a Yankee………
Betsy,
There is a short postgame on My 9. Not great though.
You must be proud of Phil. Nice job by him tonight.
Betsy
You’re linking me with Kay??????????????????????????????????????
Betsy congratulations for getting through the first game in style. He was wonderful. The rest will be gravy, believe me.
Think I’ll watch Survivor and then Housewives on NYC on my DVR and then switch over to the later innings in the DBacks game.
Night everyone!
Was he wearing this?
http://i105.photobucket.com/al.....n-p145.jpg
Betsy
Yes, that’s why I called it a building block.
TLC,
I need to do more research. I was strictly going off the stupid graphic Fox West showed yesterday.
If you are correct, then it makes Phil’s return to the rotation much less significant.
As it is, I will talk with Phil while he has his milk and cookies and explain to him the importance of challenging the hitters. And tell him to trust his stuff and the defense behind him.
Otherwise, 3 hits and 6 K’s was a very good start to his season.
Nick in SF April 15th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Johnny Damon bought the mlb.tv package just to monitor tonight’s developments.
**************
I miss him
Somebody listen to Girardi’s post-game!
Oh wait, Chad is on the case.
Hughes flipped his critics 1/2 of a Mark Fidrych tonite.
More to come.
I liked Girardi pushed Hughes tonight. He didn’t get throught the 6th inning, but it’s a good start for the season.
Huh, Rich? I just mentioned Kay because you’d mentioned the walks.
Fran, I’m really happy for Phil -not only did he pitch well, but he got a win. I have My9 on now, but their post game show is pretty bad.
NYY is doing just fine considering the offense is only hitting on 6 cylinders.
“# Rich in NJ April 15th, 2010 at 10:52 pm
Via i-yankees, Jay-Z suing Ortiz:
http://www.nydailynews.com/gos…..yfort.html
”
add more fuel to the fire
Good game. I’ll say it again. This season, if an opponent can’t score 7 runs against this team, they will lose.
This may be Cano’s year. Average and Power, plus Defense. I hope it continues, as I’d love to see him get a GG and a batting award.
Anyone still want Garnder in CF over Granderson? Anyone?
Rich
BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA
The guy is the biggest cheat.
JayZ is even more awesome than before!!!!
You, Rich, just made this day even more perfect than it already was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Trish, lol – thanks, but Phil deserves all the credit. I’m glad it’s over, to be honest, lol. The first start is out of the way and now we can just move ahead.
Ed Randall on My9 – that’s ok, not bad.
Cano is a beast.
Granderson is a triples machine.
Jeter is Jeter.
Swisher hit 2 long flyouts that were tagged.
Thames with 2 hits.
great pitching.
What’s not to like.
Betsy
It’s was a joke.
“Bronx Jeers, I know you make a good point and I do appreciate that any observations this early in the season are based on a very small sample size.”
It was actually just a poor inside joke. Jeter’s hit a few extra ground balls so he’s being “monitored” in these parts.
Pedroia’s been on fire. I see a hot Silver Slugger race this season.
Plus he’s Jeter’s little buddy.
Erica
It’s okay. We all miss him. Eventually, the kids leave the nest
Rich yep, that’s exactly what it was.
My wife just saw this Ed Randall guy and asked “Who’s that, Mr Bean?”
Hughes was okay nice first start. You love the 6 strikeouts dont really like the 5 walks.
Joba velocity as been the same as if he was a starter. The yanks are wasting him in the bullpen. They should of sent him in scranton to further devolop as a starter. What a joke how they handled one of there most talented arms in there system.
Hughes had a live fastball tonight and a smaller, sharper curve. His curve looked a bit like Burnetts’. He walked the lefthanders because he couldn’t get strikes on his change-ups. He kept missing them. Good start.
Rich, sorry, lol – but you didn’t put a
and it was hard to tell…
GB is right – the offense isn’t even clicking on all cylinders. Imagine when Tex and Alex get going? Can I just say again how much I LOVE Grandy? I also have to give a ton of credit to Cano; he’s taken the bull by the horns and grabbed hold of the 5th spot.
Ed Randall on My9 – that’s ok, not bad.
*********************
Betsy,
Yes, but his jacket has got to go!
Anyone want to complain about any of our starters?
Kazmir’s line:
4.0 8 6 6 3 2 3 87-48 13.50
Bronx, lol -
how the Rangers doing so far?
m
That line looks pretty bad, and especially with the benefit of the larger strike zone.
Fran, I didn’t see him (only listened to him as I’m on the computer), but I imagine it involved checks?
Park irritated right hammir while warming in pen. Going to be reevaluated tomorrow. #NYY
Does he mean hammy? Oy, that’s not good.
Yes, the Kay Leiter combination was awful. Kay annoys me 90% of the time. He’s got some real ins with the Yankees, so unfortunately we’ll be listening to his self obsessed commentary for a long time to come.I don’t usually mind Leiter and I have to give him credit, bc I don’t think I could stand 20 minutes in the booth with Kay. He thinks he is just the coolest guy ever.
Boone Logan or Mark Melancon? Assuming he needs dl time of course.
Well, what do you know. The Yankees did win that series last September. Good catch, T.
Betsy, you were close. It was a ridiculously loud plaid.
Oh, those hammirs can be problematic. Hopefully, it’s nothing much.
LOL Fran – plaid, checks, I knew it was something like that; I’m sorry I missed it…
m, don’t trust any information that comes out of the Angels’ broadcast or scoreboard.
I repeated a stat about Melky that I got in Anaheim last season and jerkface pounced on me.
Young Master Hughes for the win.
http://www.newsday.com/sports/.....-1.1865241
So, what did you think of Phil Hughes’ changeup?
Yeah, after all of that hype, he didn’t throw too many, eh? Just four, all of them to Hideki Matsui, according to MLB.com’s highly reliable Gameday data.
Hughes won his first start of the season last night, 6-2 over the Angels, and the Yankees have a 6-3 record and have won consecutive series against the Red Sox, Rays and Los Angeles of Anaheim. Pretty, pretty good.
Yet even as Hughes displayed his potential last night, he also provided a public-service reminder: It sure is easier to dominate as a reliever than as a starter.
The 23-year-old threw 108 pitches to record 15 outs, and David Robertson bailed him out when Hughes allowed the Angels’ first two batters of the sixth inning to reach base. Hughes allowed three hits and issued five walks, striking out six.
In the same at-bat against former Yankee Bobby Abreu, a fifth-inning encounter, Hughes received mound visits from pitching coach Dave Eiland and then catcher Jorge Posada.
He proved good enough, in other words, and the six strikeouts exhibited his ability to miss bats. But he hardly evoked images of the businesslike way he disposed of batters in the late innings last year – when he compiled a 1.40 ERA in 44 appearances, striking out 65 and walking 13 in 511/3 innings.
If it could’ve been better for Hughes himself, then it at least protected Joba Chamberlain – who recorded four outs last night – from those who could never quite appreciate why he looked so much better as a reliever than a starter.
“As a starter, you need more than two pitches, unless you have a 98-mph fastball and a 90-mph slider that you have tremendous command of,” Eiland said before the game. “There’s not many of those guys walking around.”
Eiland was discussing, specifically, the changeup that Hughes worked on for all of spring training. The changeup has been a Hughes project for a couple of years, Eiland said, explaining, “Last year, when he went to the bullpen, that got put on hold.”
Hughes threw mostly fastballs, cutters and curveballs last night. The Angels started five lefty or switch hitters, and they had one hit in eight at-bats – Matsui’s second-inning homer, which drew him a partial standing ovation – but drew all five walks, for an overall .462 on-base percentage.
“To pitch in this league, in this division, you’ve got to be able to slow bats down. Especially lefthanded bats,” Eiland said. “And in this stadium. That was part of it, as well as that’s part of what’s going to make him a complete pitcher.”
The Yankees chose Hughes as their fifth starter this spring, relegating Chamberlain to the bullpen, because they think he possesses both the stuff and the baseball IQ to handle starting. Their hope is that the righthander can become, finally, the long-term, homegrown starting pitcher they’ve been trying to develop since Andy Pettitte arrived 15 years ago.
Again, though . . . it’s not an easy task. Plenty of pitchers would look good emptying the tank for one inning. Crafting a 110-pitch masterpiece calls for something more, which is why starters make the big bucks.
“This is a young man that we believe is ready to do this, and step into our rotation,” Joe Girardi said before the game. “His next start does not depend on this start. He does have a chance to develop. We expect him to pitch at a high level for us.”
He might get there. For now, though, we look forward to seeing more of that changeup.
************
What an unbelievably crappy article; I expected a LOT more from this guy. He expected Phil to dominate a very good team?
will a-rod and tex get hr over the weekend?
if only they waited until tomorrow for Hughes to start. he has great numbers against Texas.
Betsy, chump fish wrap writer
haha, Nick. I guess they can get stuff past their ignorant fans and get away with it.
Someone was asking about Phil’s next start?
Fri, Apr 16 Texas 7:05 PM Sabathia (1-0) Wilson (1-0)
Sat, Apr 17 Texas 1:05 PM Burnett (1-0) Feldman (1-0)
Sun, Apr 18 Texas 1:05 PM Pettitte (1-0) Harden (1-0)
Tue, Apr 20 @ Oakland 10:05 PM Vazquez (0-2) Gonzalez (0-2)
Wed, Apr 21 @ Oakland 10:05 PM Hughes (1-0) Sheets (1-0)
Thu, Apr 22 @ Oakland 3:35 PM Sabathia (1-0) Braden (1-0)
I’m happy for Hughes. Got the monkey off his back. Yanks made the right decision on the 5th starter. Nice to see Jeter and Cano’s consistentcy. Girardi’s decision with Thames paid off. It is also great to see Robertson bounce back. Hang in there Tex!
Pat M, Davidoff is one of the better writers in town, but this article can line the birdcage. I think a theme tomorrow is going to be why Phil didn’t throw the change much; in the NY Times recap, Eiland said before the game that getting Phil to throw the change last year as a starter was like “pulling teeth” because he wasn’t confident in it.
I like Davidoff, but he’s looking too hard for an angle and overlooking the long layoff.
Pat M, I have dined on ramen to celebrate Matsui heroics, tacos to celebrate Aceves, and yukejang to celebrate Chan Ho Park, but what would I have to celebrate Phil Hughes?
Something on white bread?
He makes it sound like they were rapping him around the yard.
great game tonight, hughes was very solid, and i liked he had a career high in pitches
i predicted before the season (not really going out on a limb, i know) that cano was gonna really go off this year. even with his impressive stats so far in his career, he’s still really really underrated. his talent is simply off the charts. 30+ HR, 100 RBIs not out of the question for basically the rest of his career if he can stay focused and keep working hard.
just shows how deep this team is when arguably our best player (tex) is in a brutal slump, hasn’t homered once, and the yankees lineup still looks great.
let’s hope they can keep this good start to the season going. just win series. they usually start off really slow so this is encouraging so far.
Rich, agreed……….and he’s comparing Phil as reliever to Phil as a starter. First off, any talented pitcher will do well in the pen. Second of all, what does he expect from a relatively inexperienced 23 year old? Davidoff really betrayed his lack of knowledge here; I expected this kind of stuff from a Madden.
O’s looking sloppy and it’s snuggie night in Oakland. Win/win for A’s fans.
I think Rich mentioned the LH hitters b/c Hughes has had trouble with LH hitters in his career.
How he does against LH is definitely something to monitor
Nick
Phil likes comfort food; how about an all-American hamburger?
Correct, LGY.
Tex is not a better player than Alex, not even close.
RiverAveBlues Boone Logan, come on up? RT @BryanHoch: Chan Ho Park aggravated his right hamstring warming up & will be reevaluated tomorrow.
9 minutes ago via Echofon
Phil me up
Nick in SF – for Hughes, In ‘n out burger of course. Disapppointed a guy from CA needed some help on that one.
Don’t the OC kids eat sushi? Some kind of California roll or ebi or something.
I might start calling Phil “PJ”.
Okay serious question, even if it sounds mighty stupid.
I just went back to the previous thread and started at the bottom and went up (always do that, don’t know why) and by the time I got to the top I realize I had missed at least 1/4 of the posts. Some were to me, and I didn’t notice them at the time.
What do you do so that you know you haven’t missed any posts? How do you make sure you don’t miss them when you’re in the middle of a game and the posts just fly by. Anyone?
I hate hamstring injuries — they could linger for a long time. That sucks as Park was doing well. First a butt injury, now this – is he not in great shape?
Doh!!! Good call Betsy and great call, josh. I have even spent a lot of time down in the OC and I spaced on In n Out. So obvious. Big foul on me.
(New York is where I’m from but that’s no excuse)
Butt injury?
trisha,
Try reading up until you see something you’ve already read.
Didn’t Park strain a butt muscle in ST?
Nick – yep, I think a hamburger with extra pickles, lettuce, tomato and mustard; side of frieds well done and a milk shake.
m, knowing what we know about Phil the best answer is probably caviar with some Grey Poupon on the side, but In n Out Burger sounds like the best way to pay culinary tribute to Phil’s win tonight.
I don’t eat meat, but I want to sample an In n’ Out burger before I die.
Well, I’ve never had an In and Out burger; any burger will do for Phil, to be honest. I LOOOOOOVE a good burger, but I don’t buy the hype about In and Out – I mean, it’s just a burger.
Five guys is much better than In and out.
Phil got his first win against a team he’ll see in postseason. Great to have a mental edge early.
Trisha, serious answer, there’s no way to be sure you aren’t missing people’s posts except to just be careful that you aren’t skipping any — or to make quick judgements about which ones to skim and then skip.
I would suggest, once you’re reading a thread, to read down, not up from the bottom. That just makes it harder.
Burgers are in my top 3. Couldn’t tell you what the other 2 are, though.
So what’s the deal with LoHud flashing on the Stadium scoreboard?
In n Out is fine but no spread. Just plain mayo.
Tomatoes might be iffy as well. Too ethnic.
Definitely no onion.
Five Guys is very good (and their fries are fantastic). Ugh – now I’m in the mood……..well, I think I’ll go there tomorrow night.
Rain forecast for tomorrow.
I would make note of the time you leave……like, if you get off the blog at 1pm, you know that you need to go back to 1pm when you return.
Trisha
Look at the time of the last post before you refresh or submit and go back to it.
Hughes doesn’t have to throw his change-up 15 times a game. He’s not Trevor Hoffman. all he needs to do is throw it for strikes enough to show hitters that it’s there if he wants it. Realatively close game is not the time to experiment.
That’s the same crap they said about Burnett. All he has to do is show it a few times and get them thinking and guessing about it.
No way dudes,
Shake Shack rules!
Yanks missing Brian Anderson is good thing considering how he’s going….
Imagine how Javier feels about now, with Phil accomplishing something he couldn’t? Just keep winning the series Yankees!
GB, very good point.
Hughes looked very good. The high pitch count and walk totals were a factor of the pint-sized strike zone employed tonight.
Betsy, I’ll guarantee that he threw more than four tonight. As he progresses this year, he’ll get more comfortable using it and as he adds innings to his starts, he’ll work it in. really, he on;y made the one mistake to Matsui. He got almost zero of the calls in the low part of the strike zone and that cost him maybe 15 pitches and at least 3 strikeouts that ended up as walks. First start….nothing to complain about from anybody, though a few will.
Didn’t anyone get the “white bread” reference but me. Because I have used it too! LOL.
Joba velocity as been the same as if he was a starter. The yanks are wasting him in the bullpen. They should of sent him in scranton to further devolop as a starter. What a joke how they handled one of there most talented arms in there system.
————————————————————-
thats not going to happen he would have to fail as a reliever and even then they would probably say we’re going to work with him on the side