Phil Hughes: Week 5 two game starter (1 Viewer)

[Billy Bats]

Just wondering what your opinions are on Hughes. The Yanks are playing at Tex and home against Seattle for Hughes' two starts. Not the 2 most explosive offenses in the league. Is he on any kind of pitch count and would you take a chance on him over a veteran who gets one start this week?

 

[[icon]]

IMO completely depends on your other options and the size of the league.

8team mixed... no. 12+ team mixed with less than a star studded staff... probably.

 

[Billy Bats]

' date='Apr 29 2007, 09:57 PM' post='6687505']IMO completely depends on your other options and the size of the league. 8team mixed... no. 12+ team mixed with less than a star studded staff... probably.

True, I know. Just didn't want to make this a WDIS thread. Hate those things, but since you asked AL only, H2H points.Would start Hughes in place of Jered @ KC, or Vazquez @ Sea. Weaver hasn't been great since coming back from the DL, and I believe he's on a pitch count. Javier has been good so far. Just not sure that Hughes is on a long enough leash with Torre, but it's always exciting to finally be able to start a rook you had stashed for a while and see what he does.

 

[Green94]

Is he definitely starting 2 times this week?

Yanks homers chime in.

 

[my man otis]

Is he definitely starting 2 times this week?

Yanks homers chime in.

Don't know for sure. Pavano threw a bit on Sunday and it came out OK He's supposed to throw again on Tues or Wed...Hughes starts on Tues so they may be trying to slot him in for Hughes if that turns out OK. I have NOT read anything for sure, this is just my guess.I'm rolling the dice on him this week. Benching Fuentes for him in a HTH points league as the Rockies haven't had a lot of save chances this year. Hughes is matched up against Loe, who hasn't pitched that well, and Baek, who is average - two winnable games.

Igawa saved the game on Saturday and Torre has said he's back in the rotation. That leaves:

Mussina - off the DL this week

Wang

Pettitte

Igawa

Hughes

Pavano - on the DL but eligible to come off.

That's 6 staters for 5 slots.

My guess is that if Hughes pitches well @ Tex he gets another start. If Pavano can go and Hughes doesn't throw well he goes back to AAA.

So he gets two starts unless Pavano is OK AND Hughes doesn't throw well.

LINK

NEW YORK (AP) -- Carl Pavano got back on a mound Sunday for the first time since April 9, throwing a bullpen session as New York Yankees manager Joe Torre looked on.

Pavano has been sidelined by forearm stiffness, and the Yankees have not set a timetable for his return. Torre said Pavano threw about 45 pitches, 20 from the top of a mound.

"Everything was positive," Torre said. "He was free and easy. He popped some balls, felt pretty good freedom and he said it's feeling better. For the first time being on the mound, I thought it was a good outing for him."

Pavano is 1-0 with a 4.76 ERA in two starts, his first appearances for the Yankees following 1 1/2 years of shoulder, back, buttocks, elbow and rib injuries that caused many to question his desire to pitch and some to ridicule him. He probably will have another bullpen session Tuesday or Wednesday.

...

LINK

April 29, 2007 -- If it's not too early for George Steinbrenner to think about firing Joe Torre, then it's OK to believe Kei Igawa may have delivered the biggest six innings of the Yankees season yesterday.

Summoned when starter Jeff Karstens was forced out of the game after two batters in the first inning due to a fractured right fibula, Igawa supplied a half-dozen shutout innings and pitched the last-place Yankees to a much-needed 3-1 victory over the Red Sox in front of a Yankee Stadium crowd of 55,026.

"Hopefully we will look back at this as the turning point in the season," Jason Giambi said of the victory that halted a seven-game bender, shaved the Red Sox's lead to 51/2 games in the AL East, and kept Steinbrenner from firing Torre. "It could be a turning point for [igawa] and us. We can look back after 60 games and say that was the time we turned it around."

When the bullpen door opened, the Red Sox had runners on first and second, there was nobody out, and Karstens was being helped off the field by trainer Gene Monahan.

"Bleepin' A, it can't get any worse," Giambi said of his reaction to seeing Karstens writhing in pain on the ground after Julio Lugo blasted the game's initial pitch off the right-hander's right leg.

Impressively, Karstens stayed in the game for a second batter, but then left.

"I tried," Karstens said. "The way the bullpen has been I wanted to eat up innings."

Only the most optimistic Yankees fan had faith in Igawa because he was so miserable Monday against the Devil Rays that he was banished to long relief and tutorials with pitching coach Ron Guidry.

Yet the groans of despair turned to screams of ecstasy when Igawa left for reliever Brian Bruney with two on and no out in the seventh and the Yankees up, 3-0.

"Right now he is back in the rotation," Torre said of Igawa (2-1), who allowed two hits, walked four and fanned six.

Jorge Posada staked Igawa to a 2-0 lead in the fourth with a two-run homer off Tim Wakefield (2-3), and Melky Cabrera's RBI ground-rule double upped the cushion to 3-0 in the sixth.

Bruney left both runners on in the seventh; Kyle Farnsworth allowed a run in a high-wire eighth; and Mariano Rivera posted his first save in three tries with a scoreless ninth.

Because Igawa hadn't pitched since Monday and Torre's bullpen was tired, it wasn't hard to decide who was going to replace Karstens.

"He was the only one that came to mind," Torre said. "The first inning was the key."

When Igawa was ready to work, he was looking at David Ortiz and Yankees fans were terrified. Two pitches later, Igawa induced Ortiz to bang into a 4-6-3 double play that removed the fuel from the threat. Igawa walked Manny Ramirez, then whiffed J.D. Drew. Suddenly, the groans weren't as loud.

"All I was thinking was that I had to throw my best pitch," Igawa said.

Igawa got Ortiz to bounce into a double play to end the third and left Mike Lowell at third to finish the fourth. Perfect in the fifth, he worked around a two-out walk to Ramirez in the sixth. When Alex Rodriguez couldn't field Lowell's leadoff grounder in the seventh and Coco Crisp singled to left, Torre called for Bruney.

"[igawa] got us to manageable time in the seventh," Torre said.

Maybe Giambi is right and the Yankees will look back in July and recall yesterday as the day it turned around. Chances of that happening are a lot better if Igawa, who likely will start Saturday against the Mariners at home, pitches more like he did yesterday than last Monday.

 

[wilked]

Is he definitely starting 2 times this week? Yanks homers chime in.

The Yankees are being very coy...there are 3 scenarios:1) He does well - he will get another start2) He does poorly - If Mussina is healthy, he should get sent back down3) He does so-so - Hard to guess...but I think he gets another start

 

[Billy Bats]

WOW, excellent updates fellas. Thanks for the info, I didn't realize Pavano was getting closer AND Igawa was back in the rotation. (is Torre feeling ok this year?)

I figured Hughes cup of coffee wasn't a full mug, but it suddenly seems like it was just a drop.

 

[my man otis]

WOW, excellent updates fellas. Thanks for the info, I didn't realize Pavano was getting closer AND Igawa was back in the rotation. (is Torre feeling ok this year?) I figured Hughes cup of coffee wasn't a full mug, but it suddenly seems like it was just a drop.

eh, not so fast. pavano has started like 10 games in 2 years - i have no doubts that even if he does come back that he'll hit the DL again. And if Karstens didn't break his leg Igawa would still be in the pen.So basically if it weren't for a freak accident it would have been Pettitte, Wang, Mussina, Hughes and Pavano for a bit.If you don't start him definitely don't drop him.

 

[Billy Bats]

WOW, excellent updates fellas. Thanks for the info, I didn't realize Pavano was getting closer AND Igawa was back in the rotation. (is Torre feeling ok this year?) I figured Hughes cup of coffee wasn't a full mug, but it suddenly seems like it was just a drop.

eh, not so fast. pavano has started like 10 games in 2 years - i have no doubts that even if he does come back that he'll hit the DL again. And if Karstens didn't break his leg Igawa would still be in the pen.So basically if it weren't for a freak accident it would have been Pettitte, Wang, Mussina, Hughes and Pavano for a bit.If you don't start him definitely don't drop him.

Oh no no, he's been on my roster for over a year (AL only keeper league), not even thinking about dropping him. Just really wondering about this week and a little about the immediate future. Sad banana was because I want him to stay up and dominate. (of course so I can look like a fantasy genius. )I hear ya about Pavano, and didn't know Karstens broke his leg. Ouch. Thanks again for the updates.

 

[Green94]

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I'll start him and hope he throws a good game on Tuesday.

 

[harryhood]

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I'll start him and hope he throws a good game on Tuesday.

I would feel very confident starting him on Tuesday. This is the perfect stretch for the yankees to make up some ground. I think they start to get hot with the bats, and hughes can definately handle his next start.

 

[Texican]

' date='Apr 29 2007, 09:57 PM' post='6687505']IMO completely depends on your other options and the size of the league. 8team mixed... no. 12+ team mixed with less than a star studded staff... probably.

True, I know. Just didn't want to make this a WDIS thread. Hate those things, but since you asked AL only, H2H points.Would start Hughes in place of Jered @ KC, or Vazquez @ Sea. Weaver hasn't been great since coming back from the DL, and I believe he's on a pitch count. Javier has been good so far. Just not sure that Hughes is on a long enough leash with Torre, but it's always exciting to finally be able to start a rook you had stashed for a while and see what he does.

I would definitely go with Weaver vs KC here.

 

[Green94]

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I'll start him and hope he throws a good game on Tuesday.

5 innings, no hits.

 

[AcerFC]

6 now and throwing absolute smoke

 

[my man otis]

hurt now. f.

 

[Billy Bats]