Joba or Phil?

[BuckFoston]

Who would you guys rather have, Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes? Two great pitchers that both have great stuff and are both going to be stars in this league. Its a hard question but I would probably take Joba, although you can't go wrong with Phil. Wait, on second thought I would take Melky over anyone. Anyways, who you would pick?

[DirtyKash]

Phil Hughes is already labeled "great"?

[BuckFoston]

Who would you guys rather have, Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes? Two very talented pitchers that both have great stuff and are both going to be stars in this league. Its a hard question but I would probably take Joba, although you can't go wrong with Phil. Wait, on second thought I would take Melky over anyone. Anyways, who you would pick?

Is that better DK?

[perforatededge54]

Hughes

[catman]

I'm not sure what Chamberlain has just yet. He did a nice job coming down the stretch, but when scouts see how he throws, he will have to adjust his delivery. We'll see what he has after a couple of times around the league.
Hughes has made some of the adjustments that were necessary to stay ahead of the hitters. He has impressed me.

[Dry1313]

Definetly Hughes.

But we don't have to worry about that.

[Veovis]

Joba wows 'em, but Hughes puts 'em to sleep. Considering Hughes was able to win even without his best stuff this summer, I'll take him. Posada just needs to call his change more often. I don't want to see any of this strict diet of fastball, curve crud. That gets predictable after a while.

[browntown653]

I agree, I think Hughes will be the better pitcher in the long-term, although Joba is still going to be great IMO.

[Veovis]

People seem to forget that only last year Hughes was seen as the top pitching prospect in baseball. Now, despite being younger than Buchholz by what? 2 years? He has suddenly been knocked down a level below Clay and Joba. I don't think that's right, and I think we'll see the real Phil Franchise next year. I can't wait.

[Dry1313]

People seem to forget that only last year Hughes was seen as the top pitching prospect in baseball. Now, despite being younger than Buchholz by what? 2 years? He has suddenly been knocked down a level below Clay and Joba. I don't think that's right, and I think we'll see the real Phil Franchise next year. I can't wait.

Bucholz did throw a no hitter...

[Fishercat]

And Hughes did throw 72 IP, so he's not considered a prospect anymore.

[Veovis]

Do we all forget that Hughes was pitching a no hitter in his own second big league start against Texas? Who can say what would have happened if he didn't get injured? He certainly had no-hitter stuff that night.

And Fisher, just because Hughes no longer qualifies as a rookie, does not mean he is still not a prospect. He's still a work in progress, but this is all semantics. Really, I just mean to say that somehow Hughes has become "touchable" and has dropped from a guy with #1 potential to a guy with #2 potential. It doesn't make sense to make that judgment off of a year derailed by injuries. Hughes is younger than both of them and his track record is just as good. That's all I'm saying fellas.

[love_that_reefer]

And Joba will be in the pen before the season is half over

[Veovis]

And that.

[Lance324]

Veov,
I think this is directly related to all the "hype". We all heard for so long how Hughes was going to be so great, then he comes up to the majors and even though he was very good/great, the previous "hype" on him set the bar so high that anything was going to be a little bit of a disappointment. I made a previous post a few weeks back about "prospects and if they reach their full potential", they almost never do!!!! Joba and Clay kind of got a little bit of a free pass on the expectations because everybody was talking about Hughes and how good he was, now that they showed instant success and Hughes wasn't better than them instantly, he automatically got knocked down a step. I fully expect he will probably be the best of the three when it's all said and done.
As far as Buchholz goes, where does he have to go from here? He pitched a no-no and now everybody is talking about him like he's a god. Prior to him coming to the majors most scouts were talking of him being a really good #2 or #3 guy in the rotation. A 15 win per season guy. I think that was an accurate assessment. I look at Joba the same way. I see him as a #2 or #3 starter, a 15 to 20 win guy. Once he becomes a full time starter good hitters will make an adjustment on him and his numbers will not be as great.