TAMPA, Fla. - For the first time in this mass-media era, the Yankees have themselves a phenom. Someone who has generated widespread excitement before he ever sets foot in a major-league ballpark.
"I kind of get that sense, somewhat," Phil Hughes, 20, said yesterday, speaking of his fan following.
For this, you can thank (or blame) a perfect storm of circumstances. Consider:
Since the Yankees took Derek Jeter in the 1992 amateur draft, not one of their top picks has played for the big-league club.
The 2007 Yankees' starting rotation appears thin, in terms of major-league experience.
Hughes, the 23rd overall selection of the 2004 draft, is indeed great - the best pitching prospect, many believe, in all of baseball.
Consequently, we have a situation in which people - some fans, some media, perhaps even some team officials - will be clamoring for Hughes each time Kei Igawa or Jeff Karstens pitches poorly. The challenge with Hughes will be for the Yankees to balance their short-term needs against their long-term ambitions.
"In a perfect world, theoretically, I'd love him to take the ball every five days in [Triple-A] Scranton, and then we'll see where he's at, at the end of the year. Maybe a September call-up," GM Brian Cashman said. "But that's in theory. Practically speaking, we'll have to wait and see where it goes."
Said Bill Masse, who managed Hughes last year at Double-A Trenton: "I'm pretty sure that if they let him pitch in the big leagues this year, he would be one of their five starters."
Masse, now managing the Blue Jays' Double-A club in New Hampshire, said, "I've never seen anyone dominate like he dominated Double-A last year," and the numbers back that up. You strike out 138 and walk 32 in 116 innings, and you'll get noticed. This space was fortunate enough to witness Hughes' start in the Eastern League semifinals - six innings, 13 strikeouts, one walk. Incredible.
The Yankees let Hughes throw six innings because it was the playoffs. For the roughly three months prior to that, he was limited to five innings or 80 pitches, whichever came first.
"He was pitching so deep in games [at the start of last year]," Cashman said. "He was piling up so many innings that he got to the point where you were projecting he would have too many. We had to cut it back."
"I was fine with it," Hughes said. "Obviously, I wasn't going to go out and throw 200 innings-plus. I think the way they handled it was fine."
Hughes threw 152 innings in 2006, including the playoffs, and Yankees senior vice president of baseball operations Mark Newman said last month that the righthander would be targeted for 175 to 180 this season.
As much as they want to protect Hughes, however, the Yankees eliminated a buffer when they traded Randy Johnson to Arizona. Regardless of your feelings about the Big Unit, that propelled Hughes up the Yankees' depth chart.
Cashman disagrees, saying, "Now I've added more guys to be in a position to help give me depth." Citing Humberto Sanchez, Karstens, Ross Ohlendorf, Steven Jackson, Darrell Rasner, Steven White and Tyler Clippard, besides Hughes, he said, "All of these guys are supposed to be in the position to help pick up the slack. Who emerges, I can't tell you. But that was the purpose of it, that there would be strength in numbers."
It clearly excites Yankees fans to have so much pitching potential in this camp, and yet the wise ones also know that potential doesn't win a World Series. When rookies perform like Justin Verlander or Francisco Liriano, it's awesome. When they perform like Ed Yarnall and Randy Keisler ... not so much.
Hughes at least acts as if he's not caught up in all of this.
"Whatever the plan is for me, is fine," he said. "I'm still fairly young, so I have to wait. I've got to pay my dues."
The Yankees' season will dictate whether the rest of us prove as patient.
