Watching Yankees second-year pitcher Phil Hughes blow on his hand incessantly in the first inning of tonight's Yankees/Red Sox game, I can only think, "What a wimp! It's the frickin's first inning! How cold can it be?"
Then I think, "Oh, it's just April. How many cold nights will he pitch in this season anyways?"
Wait. The New York Yankees expect to play in October, and the night's are as cold in October as they are right now in April.
That is enough to scare me, but he doesn't look good getting lit-up by the Red Sox in the first inning. I am having a premonition of the first play-off game he pitches next October.
That is my obvious Yankees' bias coming into play. If Hughes isn't a solid #3 following Chien-Ming Wang's #1 and Andy Pettitte's #2, the Yankees don't make the play-offs. Right now, I can't say I am confident in Hughes to be that #3.
Maybe Joba Chamberlain gets in the rotation for different reasons than we expected - not as an injury fill-in or as a replacement for an ineffective Mike Mussina or Ian Kennedy.