Positive report from Hughes’s first workout

For anyone looking for the latest on Phil Hughes throwing a baseball, Wallace Matthews of ESPN New York has a tidbit on his first throwing session. According to Larry Rothschild, relayed through Joe Girardi, Hughes “had some life on the ball when he was long tossing.” I’m not sure exactly how one shows life during long tosses, and the PR skeptic in me thinks this is just Rothschild saying what people want to hear. He probably could have said, “It’s tough to tell anything from one long toss session,” but that’s not going to sate anyone’s hunger for updates on the situation.

If you’re a Baseball Prospectus subscriber, you can get a further glimpse into Rothschild’s personality in his Q&A with David Laurila. He comes off as a humble man, but he also clearly watches his words with the media. That only further plays into my skepticism of his report on Hughes. He also makes some general statements on how stats have affected his job, which is probably the most interesting part of the interview.