Phil Hughes captured the imagination of Yankees fans everywhere when, during his most recent rehab outing for Charleston, the 22 year-old starting pitcher alledgedly hit 101 mph with his fastball.Although it was reported Hughes touched triple digits while in high school, his typical velocity will range from 91-94mph and touch the mid-90s when he dials it up.
Though the Charleston announcer reported that the stadium radar gun had been checked in between innings and was supposedly accurate, it doesn't take a whole lot of thinking before realizing the gun was juiced.
I felt like the gun was, in all probability, running approximately 4 mph too high which still means Philerup is touching 97 mph. Knocking off the same 4 mph would have had Carl Pavano [who started the game] throwing 88-89 mph, which makes sense considering this is just his second start back coming off of TJ surgery.
Some in the area have told me that the radar gun was probably about 5 mph higher than reality, meaning Hughes was essentially throwing 92-95 mph and topping out at 96 mph. Which was supported by Brian Cashman, who, while appearing on TBS during today's game, said Hughes was hitting 95 mph during last night's outing.
Let the Phil Hughes velocity obsession saga continue. Just don't think that he'll hit 100mph any time soon, unless the RHP bought a Porsche 911 and feels like dragging on the NJ Tpke.
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After going to Friday's game and leaving with a heartwrenching 1-0 loss at the hands of Mariano Rivera [and his inability to pitch in a tie game this year], today was an enormous game and split for the Yankees.
By the way, here are Rivera's 2008 stats:
Non-save situations: 3.00 ERA, 21 IP, 18 hits, 7 ER, 25 K's, 3 HR
Vs.. Save situations: 0.33 ERA, 27.1 IP, 12 hits, 1 ER, 33 K's, 0 HR
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