1. Proponents of sending Joba Chamberlain to the bullpen always had this in their hip pocket: The Yankees could do that because Phil Hughes could then be slotted into the rotation.
But Hughes’ inconsistency has to give some pause to this theory. So brilliant in his first major league start of 2009, Hughes has now gone from bad to dreadful in the two follow ups. He has now made 24 career starts in the majors and has a 5.48 ERA. The only two Yankees in history who made 20-plus starts and had worse ERAs are Jeff Johnson (6.47) and Wade Taylor (6.27), both of whom had some hope attached to them, too, in the early 1990s.
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