From Rob Neyer:
Which is where Hughes comes in. Chamberlain is the Yankees’ No. 4 starter. Sergio Mitre is the Yankees’ No. 5 starter. Which means the Yankees, as things stand now, have only three reliable starters. And again, you need four of them when the leaves are turning in New England.
I know, I know … Phil Hughes has been so good in the bullpen: 1.11 ERA with an overpowering strikeout-to-walk ratio. Make him a starter again and he’s not going to post numbers anything like those. But to help the Yankees, he doesn’t have to be anywhere near that good; he just has to be measurably better than Chamberlain and Mitre. Particularly if — and I know this is highly speculative — Chamberlain regains his dominant stuff upon returning to a relief role.
Perhaps I’m overreacting to Chamberlain’s recent struggles, and the Yankees are good enough to win the World Series even without a decent fourth starter. But the other day somebody asked me what could keep the Yankees from winning. I didn’t have a good answer, because this is essentially a team without a weakness.
Except one. And with a little creativity, they could probably make it zero.
I hate to pick on Rob, but there are a number of reasons why this is a terrible idea. Firstly, I am no injury expert, but yanking both guys in and out of roles can only be a negative in terms of their health. Furthermore, I would hate to mess with Hughes when he is pitching so well, and there is no guarantee that either pitcher takes to the new role. You may end up with neither a 4th starter nor an 8th inning guy. Even if it does work out, the marginal upgrade from Joba to Hughes in the rotation is unlikely to be worth the risk. It seems likely that the Yankees will need a 4th starter twice in all of the postseason, which means that a good 8th inning guy may actually be about as valuable as another starter. This is just a bad idea that would provide marginal benefits while risking significant costs.
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4 Responses to Neyer: Flip Joba and Hughes
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[...] liked what Moshe Mandel of The Yankee Universe said of the situation. It seems likely that the Yankees will need a 4th starter twice in all of the [...]
Even if Joba does good in the 8th inning role what makes Hughes an upgrade over Joba in the rotation considering that Hughes has never had an ERA below 5 as a starter and if the reason for pulling Joba is his fastball then Hughes throwing 91 MPH and hasn’t started a game or pitched a game with his starters stuff in months. I agree with keeping them both where they are and then at the end of the year find a new 8th inning guy and make Hughes a starter but but if you can’t find a Huston Street type keep Hughes in the 8th.
Just heard David Robertson will see Dr Andrew about pain in his elbow which probably isn’t good and could mean TJ surgery so lets not start flipping Hughes and Joba just yet…. If Robertson is out for the year with anything who takes his almost guaranteed spot in the playoff roster?
Hughes missed up to the middle of the plate and gave up a HR on the first batter he saw tie game… That is why you can not say he is better than Joba as a starter because even as a relief pitcher he misses the glove a lot of the times but he gets away with it, that time he didn’t and a starter has more opportunities to be seen and hit. So to say Hughes would make a better starter than Joba right now is ludicrous he would make the same mistakes and maybe more because he has less average velocity.
Don’t try to say I’m saying that HR means he can’t be a good starter I’m not what I’m saying is he is young like Chamberlain and has control problems as much or more than Joba so to say he would be a better 4 starter in the playoffs doesn’t make sense. people tend to forget Hughes has struggled really bad before they just remember his good games.