So we all know that Phil Hughes has been incredible this year. A revelation, even. But did you know that as a reliever, he’s been the best pitcher in baseball? OK, so that’s ignoring that Hughes has only pitched 49.2 innings from the bullpen this year, and both Greinke and King Felix have both passed the 200 mark, but in our decidedly smaller, cherry picked more focused sample, Hughes’ FIP is an astounding 1.91, topping the leaderboard for relievers with more than 40 innings pitched in 2009 (these statistics, again, compiled only from his time in the bullpen).

So what’s been different? As a reliever, he’s got three pitches tracked–fastball, cutter and curve. As a starter? Fastball, cutter, curve and changeup. And the difference in effectiveness is startling:

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Last year’s playoff no-show really drove home the understanding that we, as Yankees fans, are tremendously spoiled. The team’s previous no show, back in 1994, was prompted by the players’ strike. I was 11 years old–girls still had cooties, the card game Magic was in, and my computer (a Mac LCII, pictured to the right) had 16 Mhz. Since then, the Yankees have been on a run of dominance only challenged by the 20th century heroics of Mantle, Berra, DiMaggio and their ilk.

In the following 15 years, they have appeared in 14 postseasons (which includes this year). Along the way they’ve made it to the series 6 times, winning it all in 96, 97, 98, and 2000. Things have been pretty good since then, too. Though the mass media has attempted to annoint the Red Sox the best team of the decade–a look at the numbers gives that honor to the Yanks, and it’s not that close. The Yankees have won one fewer world championship since Y2K, but lead total wins by almost 50, playoff wins by 7, and AL Pennants by 1.

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