This week I'm covering two horses that were hobbled and a young colt. The two major leaguers are Phil Hughes and Jake Westbrook with the minor leaguer being Mike Montgomery. All three pitchers had been first round draft picks and have promising careers still ahead.
Phil Hughes made his official return from the Disable List tonight after struggling through a mysterious injury to start the season. I'll admit that I had Hughes on my roster and under contract and paid to buy out his contract when the prognosis looked dire. Then within a week they reversed course and decided rest and rehab could work instead of season ending surgery. Hughes had been one of my prized prospect pickups when I grabbed the Yankee righthander in our 2007 draft and the following year I signed him through the 2012 season. He showed glimpses of greatness in 2009 dominating in the bullpen and getting some spot starts as he went 8-3 with a 3.03 ERA and 96 strikeouts against 28 walks in 86 innings. 2010 was his coming out party as he went 18-8 for the Yankees. After working through the ailment with a stint in extended spring training and three starts in the minors his first step back tonight against the Indians was promising. Although he took the loss he managed to get through five innings only giving up two runs as he gave up six hits with two walks while striking out two. His next start will be after the All-Star game so that gives him extra time to work on honing his control.
I had under gone a similar situation with Jake Westbrook in 2008. He had been the ace of my first year staff in 2006 going 15-10 so I signed him to a multi-year contract. Then he started 2008 with two stints on the DL before finally ending his season with Tommy John surgery and I bought out his contract. Since the surgery Westbrook has bounced back strong and his move to the Cardinals gave the righty an additional boost. It was a good sign that he was able to eat up 202.2 innings in 2010. So far this season he is doing fine with a 7-4 record but tonight he was hit hard by the Reds giving up seven runs on eight hits including three home runs before exiting after 4.1 innings. Westbrook has never been a big strikeout guy but does eat a lot of innings and is off to a good start this season with 97.2 so far.
Mike Montgomery is a hard throwing lefty and is one of the Kansas City Royals uber-prospects. He was on the fast track in 2010 as he burned through three levels of the minors going 7-5 with a 2.61 ERA and 88 strikeouts against 31 walks in 93 innings. Yet this season he is having some control issues as his walks have jumped this season to 49 in 85.1 innings so far. That lack of control has also made him more hittable as he has already given up two more hits than last season and nine home runs compared to four all last season. Part of the adjustment is due to the better completion in Triple A as he only reached Double A in 2010. It is likely that Montgomery will be spending the majority of this season with the Omaha Storm Chasers with possibly a September call up.
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