Don't get me wrong. Phil Hughes had to go. His ship had sailed. Does anyone doubt that if he were still pitching for the Yankees, he would be getting hammered - if he were not in Scranton?
But one characteristic of the great Yankee malaise - the 14-year barf that ran during the 1980s and early 1990s - was that players under-performed in NYC, then went to other teams and excelled.
Are we seeing this again? Too soon to say. But if Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan, et al, rebound, it could be a sign of an organizational dis-function that no amount of money can overcome. That was the moral of the 1980s: George Steinbrenner could not buy his way out of the pit.
Last December, Hal Steinbrenner seemed to look at the sorry lineup of the 2014 Yankees and say, "No problem, we'll just do what we did in 2009. It worked then. It'll work again."
But I dunno, folks...
Phil Hughes might have become the solid MLB starter we always expected him to be.
But not with us. Ouch.
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5 comments:
He might. But some folks just ain't cut out for the glare of the biggest spotlight of all. Call it Ed Whitson Syndrome...
But we weren't going to pay him 14 million to find out if he could still do it.
I saw Hughes pitch and lose one of his starts. He had very good stuff -- a much better breaking ball than I thought he had. Very sharp and unhittable. Then, suddenly and without warning, he fell apart and gave up 5 runs to the Blue Jays.
My theory on Hughes: pull him at the first sign of trouble.
He's still on o.k. pitcher, but is not worth the 3 year deal the Twins gave him.
Important News: Yankee Stadium is no longer located at 161st & River. It is now 161st & Rivera.
To answer the question in the headline of this story: "No."
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