Yankees ailing pitchers

May 29, 2008   ·   Paul Raymond   ·   Jump to comments

The New York Yankees today provided updates on two of their young stud pitchers health. Those pitchers would be Ian Kennedy and Philip Hughes, and the news isn’t good. Hughes is experiencing a setback in his rehabilitation from a broken rib, while Kennedy is just now hitting the disabled list with his injuries. Let’s take a look at both players, and what this all means for Joba Chamberlain.

Hughes went for a bone scan on his broken rib. The test was being performed to determine how much the bone has healed and if he’d by physically able to start pitching. Joe Girardi, said that Hughes bone scan showed a “hot spot”. Unfortunately for Hughes, that means he won’t be allowed to begin throwing for at least another week. The team has scheduled him for a second scan next week, and if all goes well he can begin to throw. Once he is cleared, Hughes will then need about a month of rehab. Hopefully this time off has allowed Hughes to clear is head, and then he’ll be able to pitch like he did last year before his initial hamstring injury.

For Ian Kennedy? The prognosis is much worse, it sounds like he may be out of the Yankees plans for a while.

“There are no guarantees,” Girardi said. “We’ll have to see how he’s doing and look at our roster when he’s healthy.”

Kennedy is currently on the disabled list with a strained right lat muscle, and bursitis in his right shoulder blade. The troubling thing is that the bursitis was an injury that sidelined him down the stretch last season. “Whenever you have a repeat injury, you talk about exactly what you’re doing and talk about everything,” Joe Girardi said. “It could just be a spot with a little weakness and you have to work on it. It could be a lot of things.” At the moment, it sounds like Kennedy could miss at least 2-4 weeks, possibly more.

I’d expect an extended rehab assignment in Triple-A till he’s able to show he can consistently get hitters out. Kennedy recently became the first rookie Yankees pitcher to not get a victory in his first eight starts of the season. He goes onto the DL with a 0-3 record and a 7.41 era. Bob Wiesler previously went seven starts without a win way back in 1955. For you history buffs, even with a rookie doing that bad, the Yankees still made it to the 1955 World Series, losing in 7 games to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Wiesler’s career happened to be very short lived thou.

So who does all of this benefit? Joba Chamberlain of course. It’s widely expected that Mr. Chamberlain will make his major league debut as a starting pitcher either Monday or Tuesday night. Thats not a given thou, as Joba only went 28 pitches yesterday when the team wanted 55 out of him. Yes, yes, I know he threw 27 more in the bullpen to hit 55, but throwing 27 bullpen pitches at full force isn’t the same. Joba’s been getting asked many of times, is he ready to go. “As a competitor, yes, because you want to go out there and just give everything you’ve got,” Chamberlain said. “But I know it’s a process, so I know I’ve got to be patient.”

“It’s what we’re going to talk about during the off day,” Girardi said. “It’s a good thing that we have a lot of time to talk.”

As a Yankees fan, I’m extremely excited to see this kid finally get a chance to start. While I don’t completely agree with the method they were using to stretch him out, they felt it was best to do for the team to stay competitive. I do believe this method of every few days pitching, did cost the team the game against Baltimore the other night. The team should of let Joba pitch in the 11th inning, not LaTroy Hawkins, but thats a rant for another time, not now.

Feel free to follow us on TWITTER and/or subscribe to our RSS feed.