1. 2007: Phil Of The Future arrives, age 21, amidst what seems to be years of hope and hype. The Yanks’ future is witnessed on May 1, 2007, in just his second start. Hughes is 6.1 innings into a no-hitter against Texas before blowing out his hamstring. Hughes is out until August. He makes a total of 13 starts with a 4.46 ERA and 7.2 K/9IP on top of a 1.28 WHIP.
2. 2008: Handed a starting job before he probably deserved (or earned) it, Hughes is miserable, making just 8 starts and hanging a 6.62 ERA in the ledger. With a WHIP of 1.708 and 11.4 H/9IP, the reasons are obvious.
3. 2009: Hughes starts the season with 7 straight starts with a 5.45 ERA and from that point on, Hughes becomes a reliever, excels as we all hoped he would as a starter and the best one in the league, at that. Don’t believe that? Just read Will’s analysis for proof. Hughes had some problems in the post-season but that shouldn’t take away from his super year as Mo’s set-up guy.

So what to do with these two for 2010? Well, according to Joel Sherman, the Yanks seem to want Hughes to win the 5th starter’s role:

This is not easy for the Yanks. They truly have believed Chamberlain’s pitch inventory was that of a starter. Plus, they have endured the criticism of the Joba Rules to navigate to this moment when he would have few restrictions as a starter.

But by morphing back into a confident, dart-throwing reliever in the postseason, Chamberlain has pushed the Yanks to more seriously consider that he might not have been suffering rotation growing pains and, instead, simply is more temperamentally built to work out of the pen.

[...]

For now, there is a clear favorite for that role. The Joba Rules will soon give way to the Phil-osophy as Hughes faces restrictions in a build-up back to full-time starter.

Are these two young talents destined to be starters or relievers? For the longest time, I lobbied for Joba to be a starter as you can always find bullpen arms (just ask soon-to-be-hired Kevin Towers, who has made a career of building cheap bullpens in front of Trevor Hoffman). Starters are more important and the Yanks need to get away from relying on the highly paid, older, free agents that they can lure.

But…. (deep breath)… did we really witness Joba’s true calling this past Fall? Coming in as the one or two pitch ace reliever who can eventually take over for Mo. There’s no doubting his success as a reliever. Ditto Hughes. Seems that most scouting types seem to favor Hughes as a starter rather than Joba, if given a choice. Hughes just seems more starter-like (calmer, composed, taller, etc.) while Joba just seems like a closer (emotional, hyper, pure heat).

Sherman toys with the idea of keeping BOTH Hughes and Joba in the bullpen this season, something I found laughable:

Because aren’t the 2010 Yanks much better if both Joba and Hughes are in the bullpen? Think about it.

As long as they have health with their main veteran starters — Sabathia, Burnett, Pettitte and Javier Vazquez — the importance of a No. 5 man dims.

The No. 5 competition could be among Alfredo Aceves, Chad Gaudin and Sergio Mitre. The winner probably could pitch to a 5.00 ERA and still win in double digits because of the strength of the Yankees’ offense, but also because the No. 5 starter would be backed by a bullpen that had both Chamberlain and Hughes.

Sorry, that is just a bad idea if you are concerned about the longer term health and viability of Hughes and Joba and the suceess of the team. Unless, of course, the Yanks truly believe that these two are not destined to be major league starters. And if THAT were the case, they should have traded them for Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay this off-season.

At some point, these guys need to stop worrying about their roles and just worry about pitching. Sure, we could say that right now, that they should just worry about pitching, but it’s only natural to be concerned about one’s role on a team. And without having ever pitched, I wonder if the off-season/pre-season prep is different for a starter versus a reliever.

If Joba is in the ‘pen and Hughes is a starter in 2010, we’ll have to toy with Hughes in a similar way as they did with Joba, though we can only hope that the Yanks learned from their mistakes with Joba last year. And what does that say about “the Joba rules”? Do the Yanks have to admit that they wasted a few years of this kid’s development chasing a busted theory, or can they simply state that they think he’s best suited as a reliever after just one year as a starters?

This has all the makings of a huge mess.

Me? I think that Joba is given the chance to legitimately win the #5 spot in the Spring. Assuming he does, let him go pitch. No more training wheels. We can suffer the ups and downs as he learns what it takes to be a major league starter. Not every kid is Tim Lincecum. Hughes can start in the bullpen and be the swingman to make periodic starts. I even toyed with a 6 man rotation, allowing CC and Vazquez to start on their regular rest, but give AJ, Pettitte and Joba an extra day here and there.

The Yanks plan on playing a seven month season, not six. Having the extra starter to help pace the rotation might be the move. It will keep Hughes in the flow of starting, but using him in relief in between to keep sharp. But it will stunt Joba’s development (again) and would be a logistical nightmare (as we discussed on Twitter).

And in 2011, if Pettitte and Vaz are gone, Hughes and Joba would be full time starters.

So, how would you handle this? What would you do with Joba and Hughes in 2010?