04-27-2008, 11:28 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Pure Greatness
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Posts: 2,247
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Peter Gammons On Phil Hughes
Quote:
The numbers are not pretty. Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy have started a combined seven games, pitched 30 1/3 innings and are 0-5. Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz have started seven games, and won two.
After two of Hughes' losses, there have been references to the Yankees' refusal to trade him for Johan Santana, and recently Hank Steinbrenner expressed his desire to move Joba Chamberlain out of the Yanks' bullpen and to rescue the rotation. In one Boston paper, there have been references to Santana in stories putting Lester and Buchholz in lives-in-the-balance mode ... before the Boston Marathon had even started.
It's very different for Hughes, Kennedy, Lester and Bucholz than it was for Shawn Marcum and Dustin McGowan as they were allowed to develop in peace in Toronto, or the way the White Sox have slid John Danks and Gavin Floyd into their rotation.
"It is totally different for those four kids, who are dealing with inordinate pressure," says one GM. "It's really tough. All four should be good major league pitchers; Hughes, Lester and Buchholz should all be top-of-the-rotation starters. But there will be growing pains. But any of them that survive this should be really good."
Hughes, living with Santana above his locker, had to start in Fenway Park on a Sunday night game televised on ESPN. Buchholz has already had two starts against the Yankees.
"It's our job to get them through this period," says Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell. "They have to relax and trust their stuff. Lester still doesn't, and sometimes tries too hard when his stuff is really good. Buchholz got his fastball down more consistently Monday [against Texas in pitching six shutout innings] and was up to about 94 [mph]. He has to throw every pitch at every count and he has to have more confidence, but he'll get it."
"It's been clear that Hughes is trying too hard," says one scout. "When he pitched inthe playoffs last year [against Cleveland], he just let it fly. But right now he's muscling up and overthrowing, and he isn't what he can and will be."
One Boston official pointed out that the early part of its schedule has been against many patient teams -- Oakland, Toronto, Detroit, New York, Cleveland. "That's not an easy early schedule to develop young pitchers," says the official. "But they should be better for the experience."
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ESPN.com - Blogs - Peter Gammons Blog
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Peter Gammons On Phil Hughes
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