A NEW CONCEPT – A HOME GROWN ACE

The future of the Yankees arrived tonight, and his name if Philip Hughes.  It seems like we have been hearing about Hughes forever, and to some he has been a bust.

Well, tonight he came into his own.  Five innings, three hits, two runs, and six strikeouts.  And one of the runs scored after he was out of the game.  Although he struggled a bit with his control, for most of his stint on the mound he appeared to be overpowering.  For the first time in memory, the Yankees have a young stud on the mound, a pitcher who can eventually lead the staff.

Strangely, the Yankees have never been very good at developing top of the rotation pitchers.  The last one they grew was Ron Guidry, and Guidry was unexpected – he was considered a minor prospect, too small to be a number two, let alone a number one.  Before Guidry, you have to go back to Whitey Ford to find a number one starter who came out of the farm system.

That sounds like an extreme statement, but think about it.  Andy Pettitte is a great Yankee, but even in his prime, he was never more than a number two starter.  The other pitchers of the last fifteen years – Cone, Wells, Clemens, Johnson, Key, Mussina – were acquired from other teams or through free agency.  El Duque doesn’t count; he was a star in Cuba before he defected.

The champs of the 70s featured Catfish Hunter (free agent), Tommy John (free agent), and Ed Figueroa (trade with the Angels).  The team in the early ’60s was built around Ford.  None of the others were more than a number three (Jim Bouton, Bill Stafford, Al Downing), with the exception of Ralph Terry, who qualified as a number two for a couple of years.  And the teams of the mid fifties featured Ford, Bob Turley, and Don Larsen.  The latter two came from the Orioles in one of the biggest (in terms of the number of players involved) trades in history (something like 19 players).

The great team that won five straight from 1949 through 1953 did include one home grown Yankee in Vic Raschi.   Raschi could conceivably qualify as a number one, but Allie Reynolds (from Cleveland for Joe Gordon) was the true ace.  In the ’30s and early ’40s, Red Ruffing, a refugee from the then moribund Red Sox, was the number one.  Before Ruffing, Waite Hoyt and Herb Pennock, both from the Red Sox, were the aces.  Happy Jack Chesbro, who won a record 41 games in 1904, came over from the Pirates during the bidding wars between the American and National Leagues.

So Hughes has a chance to be something special for the Yankees – a home grown ace.  It should be fun to watch his progress.  But he’ll have to wait a while to be number one until the present ace, CC Sabathia (free agent), gives way.

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