Friday, August 8, 2008

Solid as a Moose

It can't be said enough that Mike Mussina has been the MVP for the Yankees this season. Last night is just one more example of how he has been the steady hand for the rotation.

This upcoming series with the Angels carries a lot of weight with it. After getting handled by LA in the first two games at the Stadium the Yanks bounced back and took the last two to break even. After the same thing happened in Texas where the Yanks usually dominate, they coulduse a boost from Ian Kennedy who should feel like he has something to prove to after being abysmal in his early season starts. They should have a fighting chance regardless of Kennedy since the Yanks usually find a way to get to Jered Weaver.

The problem the Yankees always have with the Angels is holding down the offense. It will be asking a lot of Dan Giese and Ian Kennedy, not to mention a recently slumping Andy Pettitte to hold down the Angels.

Aside from the win yesterday the other good news out of Yankeeland was that Phil Hughes had a successful rehab start in Scranton last night, throwing 4.2 innings of one run ball. By all accounts he was touching 95 on the radar gun and sitting at 93-94. I have always been a big believer in Hughes and I think he could be just as important to the future of the Yankees as Joba is. Hopefully it will only be one more rehab start until The Franchise is ready to get back on a big league mound. If anything at least he get some much needed big league experience.

3 comments:

Dennis said...

Is it really worth it to throw Hughes back into the fire? I agree with you that he is important to the future, and I think they should let him pitch the next month in the minors, then either shut him down for the year or use him out of the bullpen in September.

I personally would shut him down, call it a lost year, and get him on a good workout program so he is ready for spring training.

Unknown said...

"The Franchise" is also Francisco Liriano's nickname. It must be a generic term that players and fans have started to use for chronicly injured pitchers. Who knew?

Peter said...

I'm pretty sure every young pitcher gets the moniker of "The Franchise." I have heard people use it for Liriano before and a bunch of other pitchers.

I don't know about shutting Hughes down, though. He is way under what every innings limit they had for him this year so u might as well get what you can out of him. But the bullpen could be a nice place for him to get experience without handing him a rotation spot with nothing to validate it.