Saturday, April 19, 2008

I'm Thrilled We Kept Hughes

But Hughes is 0-3, losing three games in a row for the first time in his pro career. Do I believe he'll get better? Well, I don't know (I hope so), but I'm still glad we kept him. Why? Because Kennedy and Joba and Melky are all performing good to great. When you've got three young pitchers with huge promise, keep them ALL because you have no way of knowing which one will flourish. Long term, it's the smart thing to do. So don't get uptight about the struggles of Hughes. He could turn it around, anyway. But whenever Melky or Kennedy or Joba do great, just remember that's part of the price of keeping Hughes -- success from most of those guys is huge. Expecting it from all of them right away (or ever) is unrealistic.

5 comments:

priv8pete said...

Kennedy has been good to great? Which Kennedy are you talking about? Even Joe Kennedy is having a better year than Ian and Joe died tragically back in November!

Ian Kennedy has given up 15 runs in 14 innings and even before his atrocious start on Saturday, his ERA was 8.74 and he has only lasted more than 3 innings once this year.

We need either Hughes or Kennedy to become a reliable starter or else we won't be watching the playoffs from Section 39.

Michael in New York said...

I wrote that before his last performance and still I'll say I've seen a lot that gives me encouragement. No reason whatsoever to panic.

Michael in New York said...

What about their performances last season? Or doesn't that count?

joe said...

No one is disagreeing with you; I think we are all in agreement that we'd rather roll the dice with 3 top prospects than put all of our eggs in one basket (even if Johan's basket is practically bulletproof).

Pete's just saying that the kids need to produce sooner rather than later or the season will be lost.

Even if that does happen though...people need to remember that the non-trade was made with an eye on the future more than the present. No reason to panic!

priv8pete said...

Unlike politics and religion, Joe and I continue to be on the same page when it comes to the Yanks. I would gladly accept the end of the Playoff streak if it meant that 2 of the 3 kids would be great starters for the next 10 years. But it would be nice to give the Stadium one last October run. To do that we need at least one of Moose, Hughes and Kennedy to pitch to a sub-4 ERA. If 2 of the 3 do that, I think we win the AL East and if all of them did it we will easily be over 100 wins.