Sickels' Take on Phil Hughes

Ed Valentine from Bug & Cranks had a chance to have a Q&A with John Sickels. Sickels is the editor of ‘MinorLeagueBall’ and the author of two books about minor league baseball. Here's what he had to say about Phil Hughes:

Bugs & Cranks: Let me start with a Phil Hughes question. We were always given the impression that his minor-league velocity was 93-95. He has only been hitting 88-91 last year and so far this year. Is there cause for concern there?

John Sickels: Minor league velocity reports are sometimes exaggerated, even by the best sources. However in Hughes’ case he was legitimately hitting those numbers. The fall-off last year was supposedly due to the nagging injuries he suffered. This year, I’m not sure. It is not uncommon for young pitchers to lose velocity … sometimes they gain it, sometimes they lose it. It’s a case by case thing. Remember, it’s not necessary to have a 95 MPH fastball to be successful. Obviously it helps, but if Hughes can show good command of his fastball and his secondary pitches, even 90-91 should be enough. Nevertheless, its’ possible that he may end up being a number two or three type starter rather than a dominating ace-type.

John Sickels: The other possibility is that the velocity drop is an indicator of an underlying health issue that we don’t know about yet.

Bugs & Cranks : Yankee fans don’t want to hear that. It’s the thing that scares us most. Am I right, though, that his minor-league velocity was better?

John Sickels: To the best of my knowledge, yes it was.

John Sickels: At times at least. There were reports as early as 2006 that he was down “just” in the 92-94 range.

For the rest of the Q&A go click here.