THE TALES OF HUGHES AND HALSEY

A couple nuggets coming out of Yankeeland that seemed alittle surprising to me but what the hell do I know, I’m a blogger.

Phil Hughes: Yes... Fact, Phil Hughes wasn’t able to throw with good velocity. Fact, his arm felt “lifeless” after 10 pitches in a bullpen session and Fact, he was checked for TOS. When that test came back negative, all news of Phil Hughes changed for panic to patience. The plan? 6-8 weeks out and he'll begin a throwing program and I guess after the cortisone shots he received this week, it's a start. Hughes said of the shots that he felt 110% better. Hmm, this is a mystery. I'm not getting it. Is this a “serious” injury? Is it an injury that requires rest or exercise? Is it an injury at all?

The plan is for Phil to go back to pitching in about 10 days, starting slow on a rehab program. Many believe he could be back to his old form at some point this year. In the meantime, we will really need to have Colon and Garcia consistently looking great, or at least real good, just until we get Hughes back, otherwise we may need a part-time starter.

Brad Halsey: Speaking of part time starters, The Yankees did something unusual. They signed Brad Halsey to a minor league deal. This was a kid whom I remember back in 2004 being a bright spot in the Yankees pitching, before Phil Hughes. He started out decent, nothing spectacular, but good enough for teams to give him a look, and they did, because he was traded to the Diamondbacks for Randy Johnson.

Now Halsey bounced around the bigs, but from what I could tell, the kid hasn’t pitched in the Majors since 2006. Wow. Looks like Cashman likes that. First, injury riddled veterans who haven’t pitched in the majors, now young guys like Halsey as well. Colon, Garcia, Prior, Millwood, Halsey, my uncle Frank. Everyone that's old or once hurt is apart of the Cashman arsenal. Interesting. Look, give credit to Cash here... they are just seeing if Halsey can help out. If he can’t they probably ditch him, but if he can come in in an emergency spot or as an August call up to help out the bullpen for 10 pitches, it works. No one is expected amazing things from Halsey at this point, it’s just an extra body and a “tryout” so to speak.

Welcome back Gentlemen.

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