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Before I go into my normal spiel, I'd like to break a rule. My editors don't want me to talk too much about prospects in "Playing With The Numbers" because I have free rein to write about the little guys in "Minor Achievements" each week. Well, we've come upon someone worth breaking that rule for. … If this were a movie, this prospect would be a girl so wonderful, you'd wave toodles to Mummy and Daddy's trust fund to run off into the sunset with her. Her name is Phil Hughes.

Hughes was awful in spring training, but in his last start, versus Triple-A Syracuse, he was pretty efficient, tossing six innings with 83 pitches, walking none, striking out 10 and allowing a pair of two-out singles. In that game, Hughes was hitting 95 mph, was throwing his sharp curveball consistently for strikes and showed a solid changeup. Hughes is 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, and the Yankees have been very careful with his development, limiting his innings and pitches so he could be kept healthy. I'm assuming they'll do the same thing in the majors as this guy is the best pitching prospect since Francisco Liriano. Unlike Liriano, Hughes doesn't have an injury history as long as the Ganges River. I suspect Hughes won't be a huge impact player in shallow leagues because he is likely to go 5-6 innings most starts and be restrained by a tight pitch-count leash. Still, his whiff impact could be superb because he averaged 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings in Double-A last season and was averaging 9.6 in Triple-A when he was called up. Whether you acquire him should be based upon (A) the size of the bench in your league and (B) how desperate you are. If you are even a touch desperate, you have no excuse. Grab him now. Also, note he has ground ball tendencies (4.50 ground-out/fly-out ratio in 16 innings this season). He should keep the ball in the yard.

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