All right, I've kept my mouth shut about Phil Hughes for a while now. I started to think I was jinxing the kid with these writeups so I didn't write anything for a while...and lo and behold, he's been on a tear. So, I continued to keep my mouth shut...until tonight. If you haven't noticed, here are his lines since I stopped writing (all at AA Trenton):

Date, W-L-Sv, IP, H, ER, BB, K
Thu Jun 8, Loss, 6.0, 5, 1, 1, 4
Tue Jun 13, Win, 7.0, 1, 0, 3, 8
Sun Jun 18, ---, 7.0, 6, 2, 1, 11

Yeah. He's on a tear and tonight, pitching against the Connecticut Defenders, here's his line:

Fri Jun 23, 8.0 IP, 1 hit, 0 R, 2 BB, 10 Ks.

More impressively, he took a no-hitter into the 8th (lost it on the first batter of the 8th) and had at least one K in every inning. That brings his totals in the last 4 starts to: 28.0 IP, 13H, 3ER, 7BB, 33Ks

Man. Not a bad early birthday present, huh? He turns 20 tomorrow. I had to write something on that. It's a little hard to stay calm since we haven't had a pitching prospect to follow in quite a while. I'm not discounting Wang - it's just that most fans, only the most ardent, weren't tracking his every start like we (or at least Mike A. and I) are. Hughes, along with Jose Tabata, was also chosen for the Futures Game, which is a pretty nice showcase of minor-league talent. Alumni of the game include Melky Cabrera, Dioneer Navarro, Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang.

Also, with Brett Gardner called up to AA and Eric Duncan sent back down there, we now have 5 blue-chippers (I'm including Clippard because I think his peripherals are still pretty good and J.B. Cox hat tip - Mike A.) at Trenton. (P-T-P-ers BABY! Sorry, couldn't resist the Vitale vibe.)