[新聞] Nerves hijack Yanks' Hughes

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Nerves hijack Yanks' Hughes
Friday, March 02, 2007
BY ED PRICE
Star-Ledger Staff
TAMPA, Fla. -- Before the Yankees' spring-training opener yesterday,
Baseball America magazine issued its annual ranking of the Top 100
prospects.

By the end of the day, Phil Hughes was still No. 4 -- even though he did
struggle a bit in the Yankees' 6-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins at
Legends Field.


When pitching coach Ron Guidry approached Hughes on the bench after the
third inning, Hughes said, unprompted, that his delivery was "way too
fast."

"Before I even asked him, he knew," Guidry said later. "That leads me to
believe that he's got a lot of character. Because he can spot what he
did wrong."

Hughes was scheduled to go two innings in relief of Chien-Ming Wang but
came out after 1 1/3 innings, having thrown 33 pitches. Hughes had a
rough third inning (his first), throwing more balls (12) than strikes
(11) and walking two straight batters.

"I don't know about other guys," he said, "but I always get nervous when
I'm pitching in Single A or Double A or whatever it is, before every
game. It was just magnified a little bit today.

"I think it's more anxious than nervous. Just excited -- I guess like a
little kid when he gets excited, he wants to go a million miles an hour
instead of taking it slow and doing things properly. That was the
biggest thing for me."

Hughes, who will turn 21 in June, hit his usual 93-94 mph on the
Yankees' radar gun but was overthrowing, leading to curves in the dirt
and inaccurate fastballs.

"Wanting to do too much, probably," catcher Jorge Posada said.

Said manager Joe Torre: "He may have had some butterflies. It's not
unusual that that would be the case. But I thought he recovered real
well."

Hughes' parents were on hand, having made it from Tustin, Calif., in
their RV in three days, arriving Wednesday night. They at least got to
see him end on a high note, getting defending AL MVP Justin Morneau on a
called third strike.

"I finally made a pitch one time," Hughes said.


But Hughes, who has remained level-headed despite the hype surrounding
his potential, was analytical about his outing rather than upset.

"I was rushing out quite a bit," he said, "and left some fastballs up
and couldn't really seem to find a groove -- which was frustrating
because my game is throwing strikes, and when you're not doing that,
it's irritating."

Hughes, the Yankees' No. 1 draft pick in 2004, walked more than one
batter in just 10 of his 26 starts last year for Class-A Tampa and
Double-A Trenton.

"When you track his career so far," Torre said, "he hasn't really
struggled at all. So anything he experiences here, even if it's of a
negative nature ... it's going to help him."

Hughes got Mike Redmond to ground out on his first pitch, but Luis
Rodriguez walked on six pitches, and Alexi Casilla battled for an
eight-pitch walk. Hughes then went to a full count on Denard Span before
getting a forceout, and left fielder Hideki Matsui's running catch of
Nick Punto's fly down the line prevented the Twins from scoring.

"That was a battle, but he got out of it," Guidry said.

While Hughes' arrival in the Bronx is highly anticipated by fans, the
Yankees are being cautious. They limited his innings in the second half
of last season and plan on having him open this year with Triple-A
Scranton. He said he's okay with the Yankees' plan.

"Right now the five (major-league) rotation spots are taken, so there's
not really much I can do except pitch," he said. "Just get my work in
and get ready for the season. It just didn't go quite as well as I'd
like it to."



Ed Price may be reached at [e-mail]

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◆ From: 211.23.177.142
推 sonichsuan:問一下~為什麼Phil Hughes被稱為大帝啊？
推 Alexboo:球迷封的
推 richertkk:恩..可以爬一下文喔..之前有蠻多介紹他的文章..
推 asdfzx:簡言之 擁有足以在MLB稱王稱帝的資質
推 l19: 以昨天的水準只能稱小弟. 休斯小弟還要加把勁...
推 richertkk:昨天真的太緊張了..感覺出手有點快..