Hughes takes One Step Forward. Yanks Take One Step Backward.

Lost amid all the fallderall about Derek and his climb to 3000 hits was the move that elevated Phil Hughes to a starting role, and the consequent demotion of our best young starter to Scranton.

Phil Hughes gave us an outing yesterday which, if delivered by Nova in his first start, would have folks talking about the need for more seasoning in Scranton.

He put the Yanks in an early hole. He used up 32 pitches in the first inning. He barely made it through five innings. In truth, he was highly mediocre and cost us a road loss.

Meanwhile, back in the land of anthracite

coal ( or is it bituminous?), Ivan Nova is rightfully pissed off.

He had put together several solid outings in a row for the Yankees, including( I think) his 8th win. He was regularly going 7 innings, and showing the guts and fortitude to get out of jams. And he was doing it in big games against big teams.

Phil Hughes reminded me yesterday of the way he pitched during the second half of last season where, the record shows, he sucked.

He gets this priority over Nova why?

True, Hughes won 18 games last year, but half of those wins were games in which the Yankees scored an average of 9 runs. His "gun speed" yesterday was average ( 92ish) and his command was in left field.

In my opinion, Hughes should still be in Scranton, not Nova. We don't know if Hughes' arm is back. One partial, mediocre outing, shows us nothing. Let him pitch 3 games in a row against AAA competition, then read the "gun" and look at his performance. In that interim, Nova would win his 10th game that counts.

Here is what is going to happen now ;

A. Hughes will be inconsistent and, without major offensive support, will not do well. And a crappy pitching record for Hughes will not change a thing. Hughes can lose 4 in a row and, unless we start hearing of recurring dead arm issues, Hughes will remain.

Only a series of injuries to the Yanks' starting rotation gives Nova any shot. Meanwhile, Nova will lose all interest in remaining a Yankee. How would you feel if you were a consistently successful division manager in a corporation, and management asked you to go back to the loading dock for an unspecified period of time to make room for some guy who has done nothing?

And mark these words; one mediocre game in Scranton ( by a totally demoralized, frustrated pitcher now working for no purpose against teams that have no meaning ) will give the Yankee brass the ammunition they need to write him off and crow about their decision.

Other young Yankee pitchers can be counted upon to notice. They have all now seen that Girardi's priorities are;

1. Age and experience

2. Proximity to milestones ( 3000 hits, 700 homers, 6000 saves, 12,000 games played, etc ).

3. Age and experience

In summary, if you are a Yankee pitcher in the minors and still under 33 years of age, you must either be perfect if you get a shot with the big club ( see Aaron Small ), stay in Scranton, or be traded.

I will be surprised if we ever see Nova in pinstripes until he has become a two-time Cy Young award winner for Cleveland, is about 35 years old, has a $77 million contract with 5 years remaining, and is out of gas.

This is disastrous decision making by Girardi, and you will all see what I mean when Hughes' next outing is awful and Nova's performance in Scranton makes the Yanks anxious to dump him along with Montero.