Don't Rush the Kid

What a big time weekend lined up of sports. NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs, Yankees-Sox, the NFL Draft(I'm sorry Curtis, I'll be there in spirit). But before the fireworks start this weekend, all eyes will be on the kid, Philip Hughes. I write this before he even takes the mound Thursday night. The Yanks haven't had a pitching prospect, or even a prospect, with this kind of hype in a very long time. Probably all the way back the kleptomaniac Ruben Rivera. Anyway, with the horrid state of the current Yankee pitching staff and the solid start that Hughes has had, the call up for a start or two is completely understandable. It fits in with the company line that the entire Yankee brass was saying, "We won't rush the kid, we'll wait until he's ready". Well he's ready and he was recommended by the scouts as the guy who's next in line to fill in. All this is completely understandable. However, let's say he goes out tonight and throws 5 innings, gives up 2 runs with 7 strikeouts. That obviously earns him another start with the big league team. If he puts throws another solid outing, now even with Pavano, Mussina and Wang all back, there's gonna be a ton of pressure to keep Hughes up permanently. Now the Yanks have the tough decision to make. If he starts off well, the comparisons will start to build. The media and fans are gonna push to keep Hughes up if he's successful, and it seems like the obvious choice to leave him up with the big league club. That's the worst thing they could do. When it was mentioned that Hughes was gonna get the start tonight, Torre and Cashman should have come out and stated that he's only a temporary replacement and will just get 2-3 starts and be sent down when the veterans get healthy. Now, if successful, the door is open for him to be left up with the big club. And just like with Liriano last year, if Hughes is part of a pennant race, pitch counts will be thrown out the window. For all that Torre is, he's not the game manager that he used to be, as Simmons pointed out more than a few mistakes during the Red Sox series. The Kid has thrown only 237 innings in his career, and never more than 136 in one season. I'm not saying that he won't be able to handle the workload, because it's a crap shoot. Some guys can handle it even at a young age, some guys never are able to. But with all the patience that the Yanks have exhibited so far, it would be a shame to ruin it before The Kid can legally take a shot of Jack.

A different take on the who to take to the game issue. Let's say you and you bud are in talks to get tickets to a concert. One of you is about to order them but double checks to make sure the other one definitely wants in. Turns out the other guy made some plans to hang out with the chick and says he's gonna get tickets on his own and see what happens. So he grabs the tickets, then when his buddy goes back and tries to get some on his own, it's sold out. Just a hypothetical situation, but how bad should that one guy feel for taking those last tickets?


Update:
After watching Hughes last night, the kid has the stuff to be a very good one, maybe even great. But I'm not upset at all that he wasn't lights out. Give him another start or two, then send him back down to AAA. Go out and get Clemens if your gonna pull out all the stops this year. Then bring Hughes up for another couple starts in September so that he throws some more innings then last year. Right now, it's whats best for both him and the Yankee franchise.