Hmm.. a month. It’ll be interesting to see what they do. Fossum is gone right? He probably would have been the first choice. It’s probably going to be Mitre or Igawa for a spot start, and Hughes or Aceves getting stretched out in the bullpen along the way.

Mitre has been very strong in AAA. I’d like to see him.

I’d be shocked if it weren’t Hughes (unless this turns out to be no more than two starts).  Maybe with back-up for a game or two, but still.  I appears to me that they are sensitive to the notion that successful use in the bullpen creates PR problems, and I think they’ll see using Hughes as a way of countering that, of keeping their plans clear in everyone’s minds, while not using him would increase the potential of creating a second “Joba-to-the-“pen”-type issue.  It would also make sense to test whether Hughes’ confident and successful work from the bullpen in the ML will translate to the starter role in which they ultimately see him.  If it did, they’d be in great shape going forward.

Posada got the walk off but Cano’s DP preventing bunt should not be overlooked-now that small ball.

“DP preventing bunt”

Don’t be ornery.

I want Mitre to pitch Thursday, so they can stretch Hughes out.

Mitre has a lifetime era of 81, he’s 28 years old and hasn’t pitched in the bigs since 07.  At best he’s probably a guy who you hope can give you 5 or 6 innings and give up 4 or 5 runs unless you roll Aaaron Small 7’s 10 times in a row.  Even his AAA stats this year are at best ok.

Montero if he had enough AB’s would have the 3rd highest OPS in the Eastern league at the age of 19 1/2.  Not too shabby.

Good win. Can’t let a Canadian team win on the Fourth of July.

Mitre has a lifetime era of 81, he’s 28 years old and hasn’t pitched in the bigs since 07.  At best he’s probably a guy who you hope can give you 5 or 6 innings and give up 4 or 5 runs unless you roll Aaaron Small 7’s 10 times in a row.  Even his AAA stats this year are at best ok.

I’m not sure if this is what you were going for, so if it isn’t/wasn’t, then I apologize in advance, but…. I hate this line of thinking. It was rampant when we were running Sidney Ponson out there last year. People were actually rooting for him to do bad so he would go away, instead of just hoping to catch lightning in a bottle for a handful of starts.

The fact of that matter is, they need a starting pitcher on Thursday.  It’s not about looking at a snapshot of the team’s BR page and not feeling good about one of the placeholders in the rotation. Mitre does have a lifetime ERA of 81+ and is 28 years old.  And so, if Cashman were counting on him for 30 starts at the beginning of the year, that would be pretty stupid. But on July 4th, with Hughes and Aceves in the bullpen, Kennedy coming off an injury, and Wang hurt, the list of starters goes something like Mitre, Igawa, and McCallister.  It is what it is.

They’ve got to start Hughes.  He hasn’t been in the pen that long that he’ll need to be “stretched out”.  I’m pretty confident he can give you 80-90 pitches Thursday.

They’ve got to start Hughes.  He hasn’t been in the pen that long that he’ll need to be “stretched out”.  I’m pretty confident he can give you 80-90 pitches Thursday.

That been what people kept saying.  We’re hopefully about to find out if they are right.  Hopefully I’m wrong about this one.

To me, it’s a development philosophy issue.  Hughes has done everything they asked of him.  He’s pitched in the pen while an obviously inferior pitcher started b/c of his “track record”.

To bypass him for another inferior pitcher now, just to give comfort to the manager, the fans, or the mediots, would be a slap in his face.  Sends a terrible message to the prospects in the organization.  He’s an SP, a former #1 prospects, he deserves the shot.

yeah, even if they are only willing to let Hughes have 50-60ish pitches, I would rather have Hughes start with some dude backing him up than the other way around.

Hughes with an Aceves backup has to happen.  It just has to happen.

This was a great win today…

He’s pitched in the pen while an obviously inferior pitcher started b/c of his “track record”.

i love this, “track record” in quotes like CMW is Russ Ortiz and still trading on his W-L record from 7 years ago.

it’s not like CMW hasn’t been the Yankees’ best starter basically since the time he came up.

i’m as big a Hughes’ fan as anyone here, but “obviously inferior” in reference to CMW is ridiculously unfair. 

and let’s not forget that Hughes was handed a spot in the starting rotation last season and he shit the bed.  i love the guy, but let’s not pretend as if he’s been toiling in obscurity, constantly being passed over while he waits for his one chance for success.

he’s 22.  he’s going to get a chance to start.  again.

I guess I was right afterall… Damn it.

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090704&content_id=5690384&vkey=news_nyy&fext;=.jsp&c_id=nyy

The Yankees will need a starting pitcher on Thursday. Girardi said that Phil Hughes and Alfredo Aceves are not stretched out enough to pitch a full outing, but Aceves could offer 55 to 60 pitches and Hughes 45 to 50.

Neither can give are anywhere close to 100.

[15]
“i love this, “track record” in quotes like CMW is Russ Ortiz and still trading on his W-L record from 7 years ago.

it’s not like CMW hasn’t been the Yankees’ best starter basically since the time he came up.

i’m as big a Hughes’ fan as anyone here, but “obviously inferior” in reference to CMW is ridiculously unfair. ”

Have you watched him pitch recently?

Wang’s lost 2-3 MPH off the sinker, and it doesn’t sink like it used to.
He was always walking a very fine line with a low BB rate and a ridiculously low HR rate offsetting his low K rate.  Now the K rate is up (though only to 6.9), but so are his BB rate and HR rate.  He never had the secondary stuff to withstand losing anything off the sinker.

Maybe Wang can regain his old form, but I think that will take a full offseason of conditioning.  Right now, his stuff and location are clearly inferior to Hughes, and probably Aceves as well.

Maybe Wang can regain his old form, but I think that will take a full offseason of conditioning.  Right now, his stuff and location are clearly inferior to Hughes, and probably Aceves as well.

You guys need to have some vision. This is the same argument about Ramiro Pena over Cody Ransom.

Wang was coming off a major injury. It was unrealistic to expect him to go 10-1 with a 2.50 ERA in the first half. Now, he layed a major egg, but getting him on track should be viewed as an investment for the 100 or so regular season games that remained when Wang’s role was up in the air.

Mix in that Hughes didn’t set the world on fire as a starter this year (though he did look good in his last 2 or 3 starts) *and* the fact that Hughes has a tight innings cap this year, and having Wang in the rotation was the obvious move. And, it’s worked out. He’s gotten better each time out, which makes this injury all the more frustrating.

As for who replaces him, starter by committee would be a way of getting Hughes stretched out to start and it would also likely give the team the best chance to win (as opposed to Mitre).

... that said, I could also see them going with Mitre, if they think that basically putting Hughes and Aceves on the shelf for this week is going to be too much to handle for the pitching staff. It’s likely going to be a fluid situation that won’t be decided until late Tuesday or Wednesday.

Why can Hughes start with Mitre shadowing him in stead of Aceves?

[18] makes all the sense in the world.
There’s this notion that Wang’s way of pitching OUGHT to be untenable, but he did it consistently over a period that should have been long enough to largely allay such concerns.  Yet many, it seems, remain committed to the notion that, ‘statistically speaking,’ he OUGHT to fail.  And that one little change, and that’s likely to happen.
But that isn’t what happened.  The disaster that was CMW in the first few starts is gone.  Whether or not his velocity is currently where it was before his injury, he’s pitch more effectively with each start.  And he’s been so consistently good throughout his career that the presumptions of his demise seem completely over-the-top.

It’s gonna be 4 missed start minimal. Whoever it is that takes CMW’s next start, Hughes, Aceves, AAA option, whatever, it’ll only be one start, because Hughes has to be stretched out to take the following 3 starts regardless. And if it’s an AAA option (Igawa, Mitre, someone else, etc) taking the start, he’ll stay up to be the long man till CMW’s strain/rest gets sorted out.

If they start Mitre on Thursday, they have to open up a spot on the 40 man roster.

If they start Mitre on Thursday, they have to open up a spot on the 40 man roster.

It seems like they can get around this fairly easily by placing Nady on the 60 day DL, if that is in fact the plan.

Well, it don’t quite seem like a full fledge season without an Igawa appearance either.

[24] I forgot about that. I guess the only potential downside (other than a lousy start) would be exposing Mitre to waivers (assuming he is out of option years) if he is sent down at some point.

Put Nady on the DL, start Hughes, and have Mitre shadow him.  You stretch out Hughes, get somewhere between 2 and 4 innings from a superior pitcher, and have a viable solution until Wang comes back.  Hughes gets his innings up in prep for next year as he makes a few starts until Wang can come back….everything’s apples.

And if it’s an AAA option (Igawa, Mitre, someone else, etc) taking the start, he’ll stay up to be the long man till CMW’s strain/rest gets sorted out.

another reason to start Hughes no matter the pitch count is so that Igawa/whoever can’t pitch well enough to get annoying questions about “deserving another start.”

In addition to Kennedy’s injury, a year or so ago it looked like Horne, Sanchez, and and/or maybe even Garcia might be available to provide depth if there was an emergency in the big league rotation. Taken together it supports the idea that there is no such thing as a pitching prospect.

another reason to start Hughes no matter the pitch count is so that Igawa/whoever can’t pitch well enough to get annoying questions about “deserving another start.”

Yeah, if they call Igawa up and he pitches 7 shutout innings, that would be awful.

Huh?

They have to get through one game on Thursday.  They can do that with Aceves, Hughes and Robertson throwing 40 pitches each.  Maybe use Tomko instead of one of them if things aren’t going well.  The key is for Sabathia and Burnett to save the bullpen on Tuesday and Wednesday.  With the all-star break, they don’t need a fifth starter again until the 21st.  That’s eight more days to mull your options, including stretching one of the relievers out in time for that start.  So even though they can open up a spot by moving Nady to the 60-day DL, I don’t see why they would add someone from the minors to the 40-man roster until they have to.  It just puts you in the position of having to DFA somebody eventually, and it isn’t worth it for one game.