Former New York Yankees first-round draft pick Philip Hughes was promoted Sunday to the Double-A Trenton Thunder.
Hughes is slated to make his Eastern League debut on Thursday, when the Thunder host the Reading Phillies. The 19-year-old right-hander was 2-3 with a 1.80 ERA in five starts for Tampa in the Class A Advanced Florida State League.
Hughes allowed just 19 hits and two walks in 30 innings, striking out 30. FSL opponents batted just .187 against the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Georgia native. In his last outing on Friday, he gave up two runs on four hits over seven innings with a walk and six strikeouts in a 3-1 defeat to Dunedin.
The Yankees made Hughes the 23rd overall pick in the 2004 draft out of Foothill High School. A year later, in his first full professional season, he went 9-1 with a 2.19 ERA in 12 starts for Charleston of the South Atlantic League. The Yanks promoted him to Tampa, where he was 2-0 with a 3.06 ERA in five games (four starts).
Baseball America tabbed Hughes as the Yankees' No. 1 prospect entering the 2006 season. He attended his first Major League Spring Training earlier this year and went 1-0 with a 5.40 ERA in two games before he was reassigned.
But he impressed some big names during his brief stint with the big club.
"I didn't know who he was," 2005 American League MVP Alex Rodriguez told MLB.com. "I thought he was going to throw about 88 (mph), and he came at me with 95.
"I immediately asked (senior vice president of baseball operations) Mark Newman if he was one of our top prospects because I was like, 'Who the (heck) is that guy?'"
Jason Giambi likened the teenager to a young Roger Clemens, while Jorge Posada said Hughes had the "best arm in camp, no doubt about it."
"He throws hard, and he's just a baby -- 19 years old," added manager Joe Torre. "The thing that's unusual for a kid as young as he is, his curveball is really impressive. His stuff is very real."
To clear a spot on the Thunder roster, right-hander Paul Thorp was assigned to Tampa. The 25-year-old was 0-1 with a 5.87 ERA in six relief appearances with Trenton.
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