Hughes seeks rebound from shaky 2nd half

TAMPA, Fla. - A year ago, Phil Hughes showed up at spring training knowing he'd have some role; he just wasn't sure if it would be in the bullpen or the rotation.

This year, he's the presumed No. 2 starter.

And his mentality coming into camp is exactly the same.

"I'm not going to look at it any different than last year," Hughes said Monday at the Yankees' minor-league complex. "Just come in, go hard. I don't think it really matters that I have a spot lined up or whatever. I'm just trying to keep that same attitude. Just look at it like last year. The circumstances may be a little bit different but [I'll] go into it with the same mental attitude, try not to change anything."

In spring training last year, Hughes was in a five-man competition for the fifth-starter spot, though in reality, it was a two-man race between him and Joba Chamberlain. Hughes pitched well from the start of exhibition play, Chamberlain did not, and manager Joe Girardi named Hughes the winner of the competition March 25.

Hughes, 24, bolted out of the gate in the regular season, starting 5-0 with a 1.38 ERA and going 11-2 with a 3.65 ERA in the first half to earn a spot in the All-Star Game. But his second half was erratic, as he went 7-6 with a 4.90 ERA. He beat the Twins in Game 3 of the Yankees' ALDS sweep but pitched poorly and lost his two ALCS starts against the Rangers.

Hughes, 18-8 with a 4.19 ERA in 2010, said the second-half struggles are the primary reason he enters spring training feeling as if he hasn't proved anything.

"The wins were there, but I fell off big-time in the second half," Hughes said. "I was disappointed with that. It's one thing to have a slow start and have a good second half; then you just think about all the success you had in the offseason. But to have a bad second half, all I thought about was those bad games, because there weren't very many good ones mixed in there."

Hughes said his biggest issue in the second half was a failure to throw his changeup enough. He worked on it during most of last year's spring training but didn't use it when he had success in the first half.

"When fatigue set in and I really needed that changeup to get me through these games [in the second half], it just wasn't there," Hughes said.

It is among the things he's discussed with new pitching coach Larry Rothschild, who oversaw yesterday's bullpen session, Hughes' second since his arrival in Tampa 1 1/2 weeks ago.

Hughes said he enjoyed working with former pitching coach Dave Eiland, his pitching coach for two years in the minors and then in the majors, but those changes are part of the sport.

"That's just kind of the nature of the game," Hughes said. "Pieces change. I was with Dave for a long time and we had a great relationship, but I certainly don't foresee the wheels falling off because he's not around. One of those things we're going to have to adjust to. We're going to have to adjust to Andy [Pettitte] not being back, I'll have to adjust to a new pitching coach. That's just the way the game is."