Phil Hughes does what he's supposed to...

(Extreme hat-tip to Mike Ashmore, who live-tweeted and posted video from each Phil Hughes at-bat.)

So Phil Hughes took the hitters from the NH Fisher Cats to school....6.1 IP, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8K in 88 pitches.  He sat low-90's for the whole start and was touching mid-90's.  He attacked the plate and got a bunch of quick outs, keeping the Blue Jays' AA affiliate at bay for the majority of the game.

By my reckoning Hughes looked much better on the mound than he did to begin the year.  He appeared much looser on the mound and a helluva lot more relaxed.  At the start of this year it looked like Hughes didn't have the confidence in his fastball (borne out by his DL stint and rehab) and he could not pitch around that.

(No, I'm not saying Hughes should try to pitch through injury...simply pointing out that his secondary stuff wasn't terribly sharp either.)

Anyway, this start looked much better than any start he made in the majors this season.  He's got that swagger back...like he knows he's getting you out.

He'll likely have one more rehab start to bulk up his workload - I imagine that'll be in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and will occur on July 4th.  Assuming all goes well, the Yankees have a pretty easy decision to make either just before or just after the All-Star break.  It looks like Hughes could start just before the All-Star break on July 9th against Tampa Bay to keep him on rotation, but that projects to be Burnett's regular turn (and he's not pitching terribly).  More likely I see Hughes staying in Scranton until after the MLB break, with Brian Gordon getting one more start with the Yankees before the break before they are forced to make a roster move.

I'm hoping Gordon will accept an assignment to Scranton.  He'd be wonderful to have as depth in the minors in case Garcia falters or Colon doesn't come back right away.  Nova needs to stay in the rotation because it looks like he has nothing left to learn at the AAA level...his best education will be facing the lineups of the AL East and the rest of the league once every five days.

After the break the Yankees rotation should look like CC, AJ, Hughes, Nova, Garcia with Colon on the way.  This is not a bad rotation - it has questions but there's no rotation in the majors that doesn't, even the Phillies.  With the lineup starting to get warm and the bullpen turning into something that can be trusted, I've got a feeling this season will turn into something a bit more special that the standard Yankee playoff appearance.

Starting Pitching, or why it should be easier to hit a home run today

I used to get all high and mighty about PED's - "they ruined the game, the users cheated, it was against the law if not baseball rules..." - and used to rail to my friends when they said Barry Bonds was one of the best baseball players of all time. (**DISCLAIMER** I wholeheartedly endorse that stance, but I use the arbitrary endpoint of 1998)  I, on the other hand, have come to the conclusion that PED's kept people on the field longer and made them healthier (relatively speaking) without improving their performance so much that it would account for the spikes in stats that occured during the early 2000's.

The funny part, or the part I don't understand, is why no one (at the time) ever talked about the pitching?  We had an expansion in 1993 that added 10 new starting pitchers, and then again in 1998 with 10 new starting pitchers (it's actually a lot more, because no team uses exactly five starters in a season anymore).  Without looking at statistical evidence, it would seem logically that the talent pool got extremely thin on the bump and the talent on the batting side stayed relatively normal.

---Yes, I know the teams that formed were stocked up by drafting from other MLB and MiLB talent.  But it is usually easier to replace batters in lineups rather than pitchers, even if the defense might not follow right away.  The other teams had to fill in their rosters from their own MiLB teams and the draft as well, but a hitter can reach the majors quickly, and pitching will lag behind.---

So, using strictly logic we've surmised that the pitching talent has lagged significantly behind the hitting talent, and offense thrived during this time period.  Last year, we noticied a reversal of this trend..."The Year of the Pitcher."  We saw no hitters, perfectos (including one near perfecto pitched by a guy that got DFAed last night) and (generally speaking) less offense than we were used to seeing.  Batting averages are down, slugging percentages are down, and ERA's are down.  We seemingly have a no-hit bid reach the 6th inning every night.

The speculation is that PED's are generally out of the game...that some people are getting around testing but most players have stayed as clean as they can.  Others speculate that increased testing for amphetamines.  I have very little doubt that these two statements are true - less old guys, more young guys and an emphasis on the draft and the minors.  But maybe pitching simply came back around?  Baseball has always been cyclical, with hitting and pitching vying for top spot and doing so in, well, cycles.  Maybe it's nothing, but maybe it's something - maybe the pitchers in baseball have simply caught up to the hitters?

It pains me to think that it is only drug testing that has brought both sides of the ball back into balance - it could also be incredibly naive of me to think PED's didn't have the effect others say they did.  The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, and I'm ok with that.  But while number two starters are throwing gems and 2-1 seems just as likely a score as 11-9 (the Indians not withstanding), I would challenge people to look at the sport as a whole and look for the more generalized viewpoint.  Pitching is coming back up to hitting, and I think it may stay that way for a while.