2012 Phil Hughes Performance Thread

[NelsonMuntz]

Hughes' fastball was ridiculous tonight. He was spotting it at will, running it in on guys hands for weak contact, elevating, and straight blowing it by people. I counted at least 9 whiffs, and I believe all four of his K's were swinging at 92-93 mph fastballs.

Bad news was his curveball looked like crap. I think every hit he gave up came on rolling CB's that didn't do a whole lot.

Changeup was ok. Had 1 swinging strike that set up a next pitch strikeout on a FB he blew by some schmuck.

Good assessment. That's pretty much what I saw from Hughes tonight as well.

[Gigi Buffon]

Hughes secondary stuff is such a work in progress. Fastball very good. Curve bad. Change up mediocre. Cutter cant stop cutting down the middle of the plate.

Wish he'd just go with a slider/split/power curve instead of the 75 mph trash he is throwing now. His fastball is so good it needs a complement worthy of the beastlyness.

His location was very good with FB. Agree on the other pitches. Still he's in a better place than a year ago.

[BRNXBMRS]

He was dealing last night. Friday cant come fast enough!

[snapple]

Had a couple of decent curves. FB looked good.

[hardrain]

It may be time for Hughes 2.50 to chime in...Phil's looking sharp.

[jcarey]

It may be time for Hughes 2.50 to chime in...Phil's looking sharp.

Haha, that guy had Phil pegged for some Cy Young numbers.

[Hughes2.50]

NYCrusader perfectly describes in his various posts the feelings of most Yankee fans, and the chance that Hughes has to change his career narrative. I believe Hughes has the capacity to change that narrative in a most positive way, and I hope this is the year we find out.

[Steven Jay]

I actually think he's pitching pretty well today.

[2JAY]

I think that it was a disappointing start in the sense that he was only able to go 4.2 innings and it took too many pitches for him to get through the Rays order. True enough that he kept the game close but he just wasn't able to put anybody away consistently, without throwing too many pitches.

[NelsonMuntz]

Ibanez in RF didn't do him any favors.

[2JAY]

Ibanez in RF didn't do him any favors.

But to be fair, even if Swisher was in the game, I'm not sure that he makes the play and it would have probably been a run scoring single. Phil was able to limit the damage and he didn't let the game get away which is good. I just wanted to see him go deeper instead of forcing Joe to use the pen in the 5th.

[YESSIR!]

But to be fair, even if Swisher was in the game, I'm not sure that he makes the play and it would have probably been a run scoring single. Phil was able to limit the damage and he didn't let the game get away which is good. I just wanted to see him go deeper instead of forcing Joe to use the pen in the 5th.

Can't argue about the (lack of) length, though I do think with some better defense and maybe Stewart properly catching (i.e. not dropping) that 1-2 FB to Longoria (strike-called-ball) that 27 pitch first inning turns out a lot differently.

Regardless of the excuses, I think Phil's stuff looked really good and this was a positive start overall. He's finally using his changeup as a real weapon rather than just showing it occasionally. He mixed his pitches and threw a ton of offspeed while the fastball was as good as ever. I'm optimisitc he'll build on this start and keep doing so as the month progresses.

[jnewmark]

I think that it was a disappointing start in the sense that he was only able to go 4.2 innings and it took too many pitches for him to get through the Rays order. True enough that he kept the game close but he just wasn't able to put anybody away consistently, without throwing too many pitches.

Story of his career, so far,

[bomber999]

Story of his career, so far,

At this point, if he can just be a league-average starter and a solid #4, I'll take it.

[dabomb2045]

I think that it was a disappointing start in the sense that he was only able to go 4.2 innings and it took too many pitches for him to get through the Rays order. True enough that he kept the game close but he just wasn't able to put anybody away consistently, without throwing too many pitches.

Agreed...I was totally dissapointed with our pitching as a whole, as we made a below average lineup look like the 27 Yankees.

[ieddyi]

Agreed...I was totally dissapointed with our pitching as a whole, as we made a below average lineup look like the 27 Yankees.

The Rays just looked better prepared than the Yanks

It almost looked like they were stealing signs- they were prepared for what we were throwing

Their oddball defensive alignments were spot on also

Phil got a lot of swings and misses and minimized damage. His stuff- curve and change were better than anytime I can remember recently. I think it was an encouraging start

[AuroraBomberalis]

He looked very good, despite the high pitch count. I think he was victim to a bit of bad luck, but he was reminiscent of first-half-of-2010 Hughes with his high fastball that guys were swinging through.

[ajra21]

Pitched well. Needs to be more efficient but it doesn't help having Raul "feet and hands of stone" Ibanez in rightfield.

[Shadoux101]

Phil will have a good year. That is all.

[BronxYanks45]

change up looked good, but I hope he doesnt keep giving up HRs

[YESSIR!]

change up looked good, but I hope he doesnt keep giving up HRs

Hopefully the emergence of that changeup will cut down on some of those HR's. Lefty power-bats have always been Hughes' biggest weakness. If he doesn't get ahead in the count and is able to expand on those guys, they just sit fastball in favorable counts until he throws one over that they can demolish. A usable changeup will obviously mitigate the damage a bit.

[ajra21]

Hopefully the emergence of that changeup will cut down on some of those HR's. Lefty power-bats have always been Hughes' biggest weakness. If he doesn't get ahead in the count and is able to expand on those guys, they just sit fastball in favorable counts until he throws one over that they can demolish. A usable changeup will obviously mitigate the damage a bit.

Have been saying this for over three years and probably longer: Hughes must use and improve his change up. Without it, he'll never be what we need him to be.

[flymick24]

pena's almost-HR was off a changeup up

what i'm seeing from hughes is he's still not fooling htiters with any of his off-speed stuff... and when his FB isn't on, he's gonna have trouble putting hitters away

[ajra21]

pena's almost-HR was off a changeup up

what i'm seeing from hughes is he's still not fooling htiters with any of his off-speed stuff... and when his FB isn't on, he's gonna have trouble putting hitters away

Which means he's not improved in the last five years.

[YESSIR!]

pena's almost-HR was off a changeup up

what i'm seeing from hughes is he's still not fooling htiters with any of his off-speed stuff... and when his FB isn't on, he's gonna have trouble putting hitters away

While I agree about his fastball, you can say the same thing about, like, 80% of the pitchers in baseball. There are very few guys who can go out there with a lousy fastball and still have a lot of success.

Anyway, Hughes got several swings and misses on the changeup in fastball counts, not to mention getting guys way out in front of it for foul balls to get back in the count when he was behind. He also dropped in a handful of first-pitch curveballs for strikes, as well as locating it for strikes in fastball counts. In other words, he was able to fool hitters with his offspeed stuff.

The only thing I haven't seen in the last few games that is discouraging in terms of stuff is his inability to generate whiffs with his curveball. He's used it more to steal strikes and keep hitters honest than outright attack them.