Last night, I was wondering, wow, what if the Yankees traded Phil Hughes to the Twins for Johan Santana or what if the Yankees had Hughes stay in triple A all season? I was happier thinking that Phil was not stuffed in triple A all year more than anything. Now that Mariano is hurting, Phil Hughes can close for a lot of September and now has experience pitching in big games and will be called upon to pitch in big games in the playoffs. Hughes has kept a lot of games close for Mariano and I’m sure the Yankees lead over the Red Sox wouldn’t be as great if Hughes didn’t get those eighth inning outs all year long like Mariano did in 1996. What if Hughes was still in Triple A however? Who would the Yankees counted on for the eighth inning role all year? It was supposed to be Brian Bruney but he has been a failure. That would of been a nightmare if he was the guy. Then Bruney would of been demoted for another Yankee farm hand who probably wouldn’t of been ready for the eighth inning role. I’m thinking Phil Coke. Coke has been solid at times but he hasn’t been as consistent as Hughes. Coke had a pretty terrible August come to think of it. Last night was the perfect example of why Phil Hughes is valuable to the Yankees. He came in the game with two outs and the lead shaved to one. He put the fire out and got Melvin Mora to fly out to right-field. As a starter, Hughes finished with a 5.45 ERA. His ERA is now at 3.16, the second lowest ERA on the Yankees next to Mariano. The reason for Hughe’s success is only throwing his fastball and curveball to the batters most of the time. He doesn’t nibble and he trusts his stuff than he did as a starter. If Mariano was to break down and you know his career is coming to an end soon, the Yankees could move Phil Hughes to the closer role which he has been used as on occasion. I even trashed Hughes all of last year calling him the Phil the “Franchise Blogger” because I thought the only thing he was capable of doing was running a blog and I thought he wasn’t even good at that. You can now say that Phil Hughes is one of the most valuable players on the Yankees if you really think about it. I’m glad I had to bite my tongue and eat my words. Imagine if the Yankees didn’t have Phil Hughes?
