The Hits Keep Coming

I know I promised to do some nitpicking, but apparently my list of disasters that have befallen the Yankees was not complete. Barely an hour after I finished that post, it was revealed that Phil Hughes had suffered a stress fracture to his ninth right rib. It will be at least four weeks until he's even allowed to throw a baseball again, meaning he probably won't be back with the team until July. However, there's more to this story than just the time Hughes will miss.

First, this sheds new light on Hughes' performance this season. Stress fractures develop gradually, and it can take anywhere from two to four weeks before you can see them on an X-ray. This means that he could very well have been pitching with this injury since the season began. It's impossible to say whether or not it hurt his performance, but it certainly would make sense.

More important than how this injury affected his past, however, is how it affects his future. A stress fracture of the rib isn't a common injury among pitchers, and one on the ninth rib is even more unusual. As far as I know, no explanation has been provided as to what might have caused it, and that makes me worry. The most obvious explanation, after all, is that it was his pitching motion that placed so much stress on the rib. If that's the case, then what's to stop it from happening again once he returns to the mound?

I have no idea if the Yankees will ever answer those questions in public, but I hope that they're at least asking them in private.