From Pete Abe, we get the news that Chien Ming Wang returns to the rotation tomorrow, while Phil Hughes heads to the bullpen. I’m not sure why they chose to pitch Wang tomorrow rather than just throwing him in Hughes’ spot on Friday.
I am on record, as saying that this is a bad idea. However, if the club can guarantee that Hughes is used like Aceves was this past month, such that he gets about 20 innings a month, I would be willing to accept the move. The club obviously feels that it would serve Hughes better to face better hitters than to get consistent work. We shall see how it works out.
Update from Pete:
UPDATE, 4:49 p.m.: Hughes is a temporary bullpen fix, Cashman said. He’ll be a starter long term.
As EJ noted in the comments, Hughes is probably here until the Yankees are sure that Wang is back to his old self. However, if Hughes performs well in the pen for the next week or two, I could see them keeping him in New York until Brian Bruney returns. Of course, Francesa has already declared that Hughes has no shot of succeeding in the pen, so the Yankees might as well send him down now.
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12 Responses to Wang Starts Tomorrow, Hughes To Pen
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I’m willing to bet that Hughes will be in the bullpen only temporarily, until they are sure that Wang will stick it as a starter.
This is probably the case. If, however, they decide to keep Hughes in the ‘pen, I would like to see him used like Aceves has, in 2-3 inning stints.
Wow. I agree. This is a bad idea. I understand Joba must stay in the rotation, as I hate and do not understand the Joba-to-the-pen argument. However, Hughes needs innings and I’m still not sold on CMW returning to old form. Also, I think it’s unfair Hughes loses his spot after pitching well and giving the Yanks a chance to win the game.
I guess the optimistic outlook on this is that a 21-22 year old Johan Santana in 2000 and 2001 was in the bullpen (rather than starting in the minors) and learned how to get major league hitters out a few innings at a time. I’m not saying Phil will be Johan, I’m just saying that Santana succeeded as a starter by starting in the pen.
Pessimistically, someone is bound to get hurt. Everyone will not like this, but Andy’s back, Joba’s shoulder, Wang’s weak ‘hip’, AJ’s injury prone past– who knows who gets hurt suddenly. If that’s the case, than its nice to fall back on Hughes.
Could this be to cover CMW in a first, shorter start, so Wang goes 5 innings, then they have Hughes to do the rest withouth exhausting the ‘pen ? I’d keep him there until CMW proves he can go 7+, then back to SWB for regular starts ? Keep up the good work guys… cheers.
Exactly, everybody thinks we need to wait until Wang can “prove” he’s healthy. I don’t get how that’s supposed to happen unless we actually start him. I think a big part of this decision was to be sure he was 100-pitch ready before going to Fenway. Otherwise, we could blow the bullpen in the first game of that series
Hughes needs to stay in some rotation, in this case it will be AAA. He needs to get used to every fifth day and working up his innings pitched. I think the Yankees can get by without having Hughes in the bullpen.
We can always convert Hughes to the pen in September.
This is the only move that makes any sense.
You don’t devalue Wang, a 2 time 19 game winner and someone who had reasonably big game experience by keeping him in the pen.He must keep his trade value and his type a free agent value if we let him go eventually over money.
Hughes is young and isn’t devalued by being in the pen or in the minors which I don’t think will happen.
Let’s hope Wang is finally strong enough and back in shape to be his usual innings eating self and let’s hope Hughes can help us everywhere, long man, 8th inning guy and spot starter.
I don’t know that you can call this a bad idea. In recent years, due to injuries we have found ourselves needing starters. Now here we are right now, playing great baseball, and we have too many starters. I call this a good problem.
A bad idea would be sending Hughes down to the minors, because he has proven everything he can prove down there. As long as Hughes stays up with the big club and gets his work in, I think it’s all good.
I believe he has made 14 starts over the last three seasons in AA and AAA. he is not a finished product, and I dont see why 14 starts is enough to say he has nothing to learn down there.
I was LMFAO when I heard Francesa say that…
Amazing what bullshit he says on a daily basis in oreder to advance his Jobber-2-da-pen movement. He just KNOWS Hughes has no shot of succeeding in the pen. He has a crystal ball. Joba is da only one who has any chance of succeeding in da pen. Does Mike know that da whole time Joba was so dominant outta da pen was a grand total of 22 IP when he was babied and wasn’t allowed to pitch on back-to-back days etc.
But whenever anybody brings up that Joba’s stats as a starter R pretty awesome, he retorts right away, “I’m not counting the 8 starts from last year. That’s a small sample.”
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTFFFFFFFFFFF???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And da 22 inn Joba pitched outta da pen in 07 are NOT a small sample?!?!?!
Da guy is such a moron.
I still like him going down after this start by CMW (if CMW does good). But, there is another thing to think about; maybe they want to skip Joba, CC, AJ and Andy one start each? I sure don’t know but, why not; it would give each one of them a chance to re-energize and take a break.
I’m still about 60-40 (maybe more) in favor of sending him down, good reasons for either way.