In his last 10 starts, Phil Hughes is 7-1 with a 2.27 earned run average.

Phil Hughes stopped Toronto yesterday, as he did the Yankees last week. (No big deal; your Aunt Minnie could shut down the Yankees.) Hughes pitched seven shutout innings, fanned nine. His ERA now stands at 3.17. He's 7-2 with a bad team. He will probably pitch in the All-Star Game.

Can someone please remind me again on why he had to leave the Yankees?

Ah, yes! I forgot: The clunk couldn't pitch. He has is a mental cog running in reverse, a nick in the cut of his jib - he's a bum. It's his fault - not the Yankees. Those two great manipulators of souls - Joe Girardi and Larry Rothschild - spun their pep talk magic, did everything right, but this sour-headed malingerer couldn't get the message. Like Joba.

Just watch: Soon, the old Phil Hughes - the horrible, mediocre, real Phil Hughes - will return to earth, and the Yankees will be lucky to be done with him. Management will be exonerated. Except for the team strength coach. It might be time for Hal Steinbrenner to fire the team strength coach.

Remember the late 1980s and early 1990s - the 14-year barf? The cougar man, Mel Hall? The pre-Robbie jogger, Deion Sanders? The ladies man, Luis Polonia? The Yankees decided that Hal Morris couldn't play; he went to Cinncinati and became a star. The Yankees decided Al Leiter didn't quite have it; they converted him into Jesse Barfield. Jay Buhner? Doug Drabek? Willie McGee? Everybody? For most of 14 years, anybody who escaped the Yankee clubhouse - the Guantanamo Bay of baseball - was up for a comeback.

What does it say about an organization that manages to get the worst out of players, rather than the best?

Because that is what the Yankees are in danger of becoming.

Soon, we will trade a catcher - either Francisco Cervelli, Austin Romine, John Ryan Murphy or Gary Sanchez. Somebody will go, because we have too many backstops and not enough of everything else. Why do have the distinct feeling that whomever goes, he's going to blossom into a fine player - the kind of player he never would have been with the Yankees? I can't help but especially think of Romine - who showed signs of life late last year, but who has simply been buried by the team, with no hope of ever getting a shot. We'll get next to nothing for him, and then he will do well. Another Mark Melancon.

The saddest part of the Phil Hughes story is that we didn't trade him last summer. He could have enjoyed his resurgence last August, and over the winter, he would have made a lot more money. Of course, we wouldn't have gotten much for him in a trade. As it turned out, we didn't even receive a draft pick.

And whatever it was we were doing with Phil Hughes, Minnesota apparently tried something different. But no - just keep repeating it: The fault was Phil Hughes', not ours.

Unless you're the strength coach.