OK, so it’s fair to panic when your preseason American League favorites open the season 0-6.
Yankee Phil Hughes’ Spring Struggles Continue
But what about when your No. 2 starter can’t get anyone out? And struggled in spring training, too?
In March, Phil Hughes wasn't throwing as hard as usual. Not nearly as hard. According to the scouts, anyway.
Not to worry, everyone said. He didn’t throw real hard in springing last year, either. But ultimately he averaged 92-93 on his fastball during the season, and Hughes’ four-seam fastball ranked among the league’s best fastballs. His four-seam fastball won him 18 games and got him into the All-Star Game.
Maybe Hughes’ fastball will come around. But in his first two regular-season starts last season, he struck out 16 hitters in 12 innings. In his first two starts this season, he’s got one strikeout in six innings.
We always have to be careful about reading too much into two games, whether they come in early April, late June, or any other span of six or seven days. We always have to be careful about reading too much into radar-gun readings, and especially early in the season.
Still, if the Yankees' pitching coach and Hughes himself can be concerned about his fastball -- as they were after his first start -- can't we be concerned just a little bit, too? Or encouraged, if we're among those few souls who don't want the New York Yankees to win 162 games every year?
The line on the Yankees this spring -- or my line, anyway -- was that their aging lineup wasn't really an issue, but the back end of their rotation definitely might be. Ivan Nova, Freddy Garcia, and if you didn't trust A.J. Burnett to harness his offerings ... those guys might leave the Yankees with only two dependable starters, at least until Brian Cashman swaps two or three prospects for a reliable veteran.
But what if the Yankees are down to just one reliable starter? Or one excellent starter and four guys who couldn't break into the Phillies' rotation? That would be good news for not only the Red Sox, but every other team in the American League that's hoping it won't take more than 88 or 90 wins to win the division.
Sure, it seems unlikely now. But those who forget what happened 11 years ago will be shocked if it happens again.
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