Thoughts on Phil Hughes

My thoughts after seeing the kid in action:

• Curve just wasn’t cooperating, fastball command came and went, changeup was good but not thrown enough. I don’t want to make excuses for him, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say he was a tad nervous pitching in front of friends & family.
• Way to many first pitch curveballs early in the game. Dunno what that was all about, but I’m guessin’ it had to do with Jorge’s gameplan.
• The stadium gun had Hughes sitting at 88-90 with his fastball, with two or three 91’s mixed in. The same gun had Dustin Moseley at 92-94 with one 96 (!). I have a hard time believing any of that.
• Kid’s got a great delivery, I’m a big fan of a pitcher being able to repeat his motion, and Hughes does it extremely well.
• Love the way he pitched Vlad, hard in on the hands. Not many young pitchers would be up to that. (FYI – all those years on the turf in Montreal must have destroyed Vlad’s knees and ankles, he’s barely mobile & will be a full-time DH by 2009 the latest)
• The scoreboard said that Mathis was hitting .200 on the year when he ripped that double in second. I saw the ball head for the corner and muttered 3 words to myself: fuck the heck.
• The second inning was kinda ugly, but he was pretty dominant from the 3rd through 5th, blowing a few guys away on those supposed 88 mph heaters.
• I can’t help but laugh everytime he starts wearing down after his 80th pitch. Pitch counts, turning great arms into 5 inning pitchers since 1985!
• His line on the year: 32.2 IP, 28 H, 14 BB, 30 K, 373 pitches/243 strikes (65.1%). Just needs to cut down on those walks a bit, and improve his pitch efficiency.
• Phil owes me $295 for the speeding ticket I got on the way to see him pitch.

With any luck, I’ll have a similar post for Joba tomorrow.