5 Responses to “Hughes Must “Change” to Stay In Rotation for Long Haul”
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Nice article. I agree with your assessment of Phil 100%. For a guy who came up being hailed as having an off the charts baseball IQ, he has been maddeningly stubborn and all too predictable as a major leaguer. He doesn't have "Here it is, let's see you try to hit it" type of stuff at this level, at least not as a starter. He needs to change speeds, keep hitters off balance and his stuff will play up. He needs to mature as a pitcher. I'm not optimistic, his batted ball profile is very bad for a righthander that pitches his home games at YS3, and his H/R splits illustrate that.
Personally, I'm hoping he re-establishes some trade value and we can flip him mid season or at the end of this year for a longer term solution in RF or at C. But he's still so young, he could turn it around. Stranger things have happened.
I thought as a minor leaguer, Phil had great control and a killer 12/6 curveball? As a major leaguer, he has neither. Even when he's 'good', he is very inefficient. Personally, at best, I think he could be a good #3, but 25 or not, I just don't see him near the top of the rotation.
Nice first article, and welcome to the crew!
There were some positives to take from today's start. Here's to hoping Hughes can sustain swings and misses in the strike zone, while also mixing in some well-commanded, deceptive, secondary pitches.
So good…