Well, we've heard the hype and seen the first game so what do we make of him?
Naturally either nerves or adrenaline took their effect on him in the first and the better hitters in the Jays lineup took advantage of some loose pitching but after that he settled down well and there was enough to believe he has a very good future. However, there was also plenty to make you think he needs more time to develop.
It all starts with his fastball which settles in the low 90's but occasionally creeps towards 95 with plenty of movement. He still left it up more than he would like and was fortunate that Toronto was missing a few of its better hitters. It was too much for many of them to handle but the likes of Rios, Wells and Thomas hit him fairly hard.
He has a very good differential between his pitches and the 75 mph curve will get him plenty of K's in conjunction with his fastball and his change shows signs of being a plus pitch. Right now the change had a tendency to stay straight and up. After the first they used the change as more of a show pitch and, as a result, it didn't hurt him.
Its funny when you see Hughes and his inexperience and compare him to Igawa who has a good few years experience in Japan as Hughes does a much, much better job at repeating his delivery with a consistent stride and arm slot. Comparisons have already been made between him and Roger Clemens' mechanically which says it all really as The Rocket is one of the most technically sound hurlers of recent years.
The thing that marks him out most of all as a potential front of the rotation guy is his mental make-up. At no point in time did he look out of place on the mound and he never backed down to any of the hitters. Even after the rough first inning he never panicked.
So what does all this mean? It's all down to fine tuning and filling out. He could do with a bit more body mass to help his durability but he just needs to fine tune his offspeed stuff and he'll be ready to be something like the pitcher everyone keeps saying he could be. He's probably a better pitcher than half the guys in the Yankee rotation right now (the reason they called him up in the first place) but his long term development could probably do with more time at AAA.
He's not as advanced at that age as guys like King Felix, Verlander and Ankiel were but few are. The sad thing for all us non-Yankee fans is that he really could be special.
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