I Can Feel Phil Hughes Coming In The Air Tonight... Oh Lord!

Tonight's the big night! Phil Hughes, the winner of the 5th Starter Sweepstakes makes his regular season debut. And with Javy Vazquez setting the bar nice and low for him and his pitching counterpart on the Angels being somebody the Yankees traditionally destroy, everything is set up for Hughes to have a good night.

It will be interesting to see what kind of innings/pitch limit Joe has Phil on tonight. I mean, this IS the same guy who fanned 12 in a simulated Spring Training game not too long ago, so you don't want to risk overworking him. But if he's as dominant as he was against those simulated hitters, you have to leave him out there.

In a perfect world, you'd love to see Phil go 7+ tonight and give up a run or 2. But if he is aggressive towards batters, hits his spots with all his pitches, and shows enough confidence to try to work in his new changeup, I'll be happy with 5-6 innings and 3-4 ER allowed. And in all seriousness, 90-95 pitches is plenty for tonight.