New York Yankees: Phil Hughes Off-Season in Review

(Zell's Pinstripe Blog)

Phil Hughes went down with a stress fracture in his right rib cage on May 1. It took him out for most of the season.

Prior to the injury, he was horrible. He posted these numbers: 22 IP (W-L) 0-4 9.00ERA 13K.

When he returned, Hughes posted these numbers in two starts: 12 IP (W-L) 0-0 2.25 ERA 10K. Big difference, huh?

Well, I figured it would be a sign of good things to come, and I was right. Phil was assigned to the Arizona Fall League to work on building up innings. He needed the innings so he could pitch more in 2009.

The reason for that is teams don’t like to throw a youngster out for 200 innings a year. Especially true if the player has never pitched that much during such a long stretch of time. His role next year will depend on what the Yankees do this off-season.

He will either be pitching for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre or the New York Yankees on Opening Day 2009.

• Girardi said that there are situations where Hughes could open the year in New York, but it would depend on how successful the Hot Stove season is.
• Hughes did not allow more than two earned runs in six of his seven starts in Arizona.
• He was clocked around 95 mph in some starts, striking out 38 and walking 13 in 30 innings.

I’m not worried about Phil, but there were some conflicting reports on Hughes this off-season.

Here is an overview of the Yankees prospects and how they fared this off-season:

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