All-World pitching prospect Philip Hughes makes his first major league start against a Glaus-less Blue Jays team. (You don't think facing John MacDonald isn't as daunting, do you?) What I find interesting about yesterday's rainouts the scheduled starting pitcher, Andy Pettitte, being pushed to the Red Sox series - two games later- in order to keep Philip Hughes pitching tonight.
To me, it indicates the Yankees plan on keeping Hughes in the rotation. If it were simply a one-off, then he could have been skipped. He wasn't even recalled until this afternoon. I know Jeff Karstens did not engender confidence based on his start last weekend, but should he be judged solely on a sample size of one? Are the Yankees so panicked that winning against the Red Sox takes precedence over snapping a five-game losing streak? Wouldn't be more likely to do so against the Jays than Hughes?
I am also tending towards Hughes remaining in the rotation based on the loose lips of Baseball Tonight commentator, Rick Sutcliffe, who relayed that injured Yankees starter, Carl Pavano, told him he would not pitch again this season. That isn't exactly shocking, but, if at all near the truth, Yankees management knows it and would prefer Hughes to wet his feet against the Glaus-less, and Zaunless, Blue Jays.
FWIW, I landed Hughes in one Yahoo! league and not in another. The league I didn't land him, I lost out to the third-place team. I'm in last!