WHY THE YANKEES NEW KIDS ARE MOVING ON UP

Reports out of Yankeeland say the kids are movin' on up and some may join the big club by September, according to Jon Heyman of SI.Jesus Montero: That's right. Jon Heyman reports Jesus is coming and the date looks to be September 1st. I was convinced after the trade deadline that Jesus Montero would be up much sooner than that so he could adapt to the Bigs before the playoffs. I wrote about it in, WHY JESUS IS COMING TO YANKEELAND NOW. But hey, things happen for a reason and it's clear they're waiting to bring Jesus up until they seem comfortable. The good news is though... Jesus will be up this year. Currently, Montero is batting .283 with 13 home runs and 55 homeruns in 96 games. Start marking your calendar.(Michael Mancuso/The Times of Trenton)

Dellin Betances: Dellin is moving up to Scranton Wilkes Barre, according the Dellin himself. I love Twitter, that's where he announced it. Read about it HERE. Betances has been doing pretty decent in AA, going 4-6 with a 3.42 ERA... 1.34 WHIP. the big thing is he's been striking out alot of batters, 112 of them in over 105 innings but walks quite more than many would like... 55. The best part is that's why he's down there, to work out the kinks and now he'll get to pitch against bigger batters in AAA, and work on walking less. Betances is exciting because he's 23 years old and there is alot of buzz about the kid. I've personally been more excited about Manny Banuelos, but it is clear, Dellin can develop into something special.



One thing I found interesting is the subject of innings limit and Dellin Betances. It seems the Yankees really do baby their guys down on the farm and I first heard about it when I read this article about Bill Masse complaining about the way the Yankees handled Phil Hughes. Read it HERE. That prompted me to write WAS BILL MASSE RIGHT ABOUT HUGHES? Dellin apparently was pissed about the way he was handled in AA and expressed it to John Nalbone. Betances said this:



“I mean, I would love to go seven innings. I haven’t gone seven innings since Charleston (in 2008) just because they haven’t given me the chance." The only thing I thought of when I read this was, is Dellin Betances the new Phil Hughes? Are alot of these guys down in the Yankee farm system not being stretched and strengthen properly or is this routine of innings limits the right thing to do? Remember, Bill Masse and what he said of Hughes:



"He never learns how to pitch when he is a little bit fatigued. I think you run into those problems because he is always fresh. Also, he is never in trouble. He needs to learn how to pitch out of his second or third jam in the seventh inning with two outs and he’s throwing 90 mph instead of 94.”



I'm not expert, but this whole thing is something interesting.



One things for sure, I'm happy to see Jesus Montero and Dellin Betances making advancements in their careers in pinstripes and I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully we will see Manny Banuelos too, then all of Yankeeland can rejoice.



The new Yankees kids are coming, new blood... new life.



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WHY THE PEN IS WHERE HUGHES BELONGS

(Photo: Getty)
Mark Feinsand has the story first HERE, and I suggested it a few weeks ago in WHY I'D MOVE HUGHES TO THE PEN. It makes sense to put Phil Hughes in the bullpen. No, this isn't a long term decision according to the Yankees, but it is for this Yankees / Red Sox series at least. Then, they'll re-evaluate. To be quite honest, this is a good test, especially if Hughes gets work out of the pen this weekend.

Phil Hughes gets mixed reviews by Yankee fans. Many are frustrated and don't believe the hype, others love the Golden Boy and just want him to succeed no matter what. Me? I just feel as though you can't just force the kid to be a starter if he's not. Now, don't misunderstand me; Hughes was huge for us in 2010, winning 18 games, but as many predicted, like Tom Verducci (Read HERE), there would definitely be work load issues for Phil Hughes in 2011. He was right and "dead arm" occurred. Couple that theory with the former Yankee player and manager Bill Masse who thought they babied Phil Hughes when he was down in the minors and we may be onto something. (In Photo: Bill Masse)
Read WAS BILL MASSE RIGHT ABOUT HUGHES? In it, Masse said this about the treatment of Hughes in the minors:

“We get so ridiculous with this dumb pitch count stuff… Somebody came up with a pitch count thing (like) this is going to decide if a kid’s arm is going to be healthy or not. It’s like predicting the weather sometimes. ‘If he throws 66 pitches, he will be fine, but if he throws 81, he is going to get hurt.’ No one can predict that.

The only negative you run into is that he never learns how to pitch when he is tired. He never learns how to pitch when he is a little bit fatigued. I think you run into those problems because he is always fresh. Also, he is never in trouble. He needs to learn how to pitch out of his second or third jam in the seventh inning with two outs and he’s throwing 90 mph instead of 94.”

Look, I don't take myself too seriously, there are plenty of people out there that have their own theories about Phil Hughes, This is mine. Use Phil as you need him, especially this season. Get him back to full strength. Maybe he will be back as a starter. maybe he's a reliever like he's proven for the Yankees in 2009. But what do I know, I'm just a blogger.

Clearly one of the main reasons the Yankees may move Hughes to the pen is because of the 6 man rotation they currently have. CC Sabathia has 16 wins, Freddy Garcia and Ivan Nova have 10 wins each, AJ Burnett has 8 wins, Bartolo Colon has 8 as well. Phil Hughes was out half the season nursing a "Dead arm" issue and has a record of 2-3 with a 6.93 ERA. To me, I say, let him work his way back, build his arm strength and see how he does out of the pen. Why take the others out of the rotation for someone who hasn't earned it.

Look, for all I know in 3 days Girardi may decide to move Nova back down to Scranton after the weekend, but to me, Nova earned his spot, he's done everything asked of the Yankees this year and he's proving himself. Hughes hasn't base it on a mystery illness, bad starts or whatever, bottom line, it's August. And think about this... Feinsand points out if after this weekend. Hughes comes out of the bullpen, Nova could then be put IN the bullpen and then there will be question marks on what to do next with AJ Burnett in his next start. To be honest, we don't need this in my opinion, we need stability in our rotation, it helps with confidence in pitchers. We used to laugh at Mike Mussina because he needed a schedule. He needed to pitch when he was supposed to pitch so he could concentrate on his ritual on throwing days. Maybe he was onto something. In my opinion, right now we need consistency and rhythm, not uncertainty. That's all I'm saying.

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WAS BILL MASSE RIGHT ABOUT HUGHES?

(Photo: Corey Sipkin)
I was doing what I always do in the morning, looking for interesting nuggets related to the New York Yankees and I stumbled across something that I had forgotten about. I was reminded by Anthony Coleman, read him HERE, about a controversy in reference to Phil Hughes and Bill Masse from back in the day when Hughes was in the minors.

Who’s Bill Masse you ask? Well, in a nutshell, he was a former ballplayer who just didn’t quite have to stuff to make it to the pros. He did coach in the minors for a while though and was the manager while Phil Hughes was with the Trenton Thunder.

Back when Hughes was with the Thunder, Masse was heavily criticized by Yankee Brass and eventually let go for making critical comments about the way the Yankees handled a very young Phil Hughes. As Coleman puts it “Back then, the Yankees allowed him to pitch just 5 innings each start.” Masse thought the idea of that was absolutely ridiculous and said so:

“We get so ridiculous with this dumb pitch count stuff… Somebody came up with a pitch count thing (like) this is going to decide if a kid’s arm is going to be healthy or not. It’s like predicting the weather sometimes. ‘If he throws 66 pitches, he will be fine, but if he throws 81, he is going to get hurt.’ No one can predict that.”

OK, look, that’s his opinion and if I’m the Yankees, I'm sure I would reprimand Masse for speaking out of turn. They make the rules and Phil Hughes was our Golden Boy. We were grooming and breeding him to be a winner. We didn’t want him to blow out his arm at a young age and we knew that slow and steady would essentially win the race. So, right there, I get what the Yankees were doing, so we move on.

Masse: “The only negative you run into is that he never learns how to pitch when he is tired. He never learns how to pitch when he is a little bit fatigued. I think you run into those problems because he is always fresh. Also, he is never in trouble. He needs to learn how to pitch out of his second or third jam in the seventh inning with two outs and he’s throwing 90 mph instead of 94.”

Now, that I find interesting. Yes, it’s obvious, but it’s something that pitching coaches and Yankee brass never talk about. Masse may not have ever been a major league sensation, but maybe he was on to something. Do these guys that only pitch a certain number of pitches or set innings each game not know what it's like to pitch tired? Is there a better way to keep their arm healthy and strengthen them at the same time? It's something to think about. Look, it’s not the first time people have made this suggestion.

Nolan Ryan banished the pitch count so he could strengthen his starters in the Texas organization, (Read it HERE) and that goes back to Ryan's mentality of when he pitched until his arm fell off during his career. (Not literally.)

Yes, it was a different time then and pitch count came into play later than when Ryan pitched but that was because a lot of pitchers, were starting to get hurt and it was a way to monitor the young pitching a farm system had.

But to me, Masse makes a valid point. Am I suggesting young pitchers just throw all day long? No, I'm saying maybe, just maybe this mystery "Dead Arm" inflammation issue Hughes is trying to over come is related. Could it be? I'm just asking because I don't know.

Masse was fired by the Yankees shortly after his comments. Anthony Coleman goes on to say: “The 'kids’ glove approach' has all been brought back up with Hughes having arm troubles now and the handling of star prospects Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances.”

Coleman also says that Cashman denied the conservative approach to pitching Hughes the way they allegedly do and is not connecting any dots to the recent arm problems Hughes has had.

Now, again, you have to wonder. Phil Hughes mystery illness came out of no where and if you think about the amount of innings Phil pitched in 2010(176.1) compared to 2009 (86.1), there is a considerable increase with no gradual work to get him there. Masse may have been muzzled, but I did want to bring this up to all of you. It’s interesting. Thank you Anthony Coleman for putting it out there to make people think.

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