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Yes, I was among those that said trading Hughes as part of a deal for Johan Santana would be overpaying. (And, hey, relative to what the Twins got from the Mets, that still may be be true.) And I did too quickly buy into that first good 2009 outing off the impressive stint at Triple-A, which saw him put up 6.33 strikeouts for every walk.

Since I no longer trust my judgment when it comes to Hughes, I'll solicit expert counsel, going through my old notebooks for some Hughes reports from professional scouts and seeking the expert advice from Keith Law, current ESPN analyst and former special assistant to the general manager with the Blue Jays.

First, let's do the inventory of Hughes' Yankees season to date. We must start with 6.48 walks per nine innings. That's obscene. In Scranton, he walked three guys in 19 1/3 innings. The Bronx ain't Scranton, I know. My shorthand is walk rate equals ERA. So there's no need to even delve deeply into other disturbing trends such as his rate of two homers per nine innings and the decidedly mediocre K rate (5.40 per nine innings).

On the plus side, his velocity has improved (more on that below) and he's still young (23 next month) with a great power-pitching frame (6-5, 230).

They say TINSTAPP a lot on baseball blogs -- There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect. Was Hughes ever really the out-of-this-world prospect many believed?

"I saw Hughes twice before his Major League debut," Law said. "Both times, he had good velocity, but the ball was straight and up, and he didn't have the great command that a pitcher with that kind of fastball requires," Law says. "His sharp curveball looked like a potential out pitch, but it was just about dead vertical, and he had no third pitch. All that combined pushed him below No. 1 starter potential to me."

That's right in line with what an American League East scout told me in 2007. "I see him as more of a No. 2 guy," said the scout, who also knocked his "feel for pitching."

A National league scout who watched Hughes in the Arizona Fall League last November concurred. "If he is going to be stuck at 91, then he's a No. 3 guy," the scout said. "But I think he'll get back to being a tick higher, 92-to-94 mph. That's the key to what he becomes." With that added velocity, our NL scout said Hughes "still looks like he can be a No. 2 guy to me on a championship-caliber team."

Velocity update: Hughes is at 92.4 mph with his average fastball this year, up from 91.2 in '08. Of course, all Hughes' samples are small because he's always hurt. Joba Chamberlain is 92.5 average fastball velocity this year. And 92.4 is higher than Tim Lincecum's 92.2. Should Hughes be able to maintain it, that velocity is among the top 20 of big league starters. I caution that some of those guys had radar readings in April when their arms may not have been fully in shape yet. Still, Hughes is definitely not lacking in this skill.

Is it too early to say that Hughes no longer projects as even a No. 2 or No. 3 starter?

Law says it is "too early to give up on Hughes just based on age, history and his irregular experience since the original callup and injury. If the Yankees don't want to give him reps in the Majors to develop, then they're probably better off letting him go to [Triple-A] and dominate there, thus somewhat restoring his trade value."

I'm recalling a piece I wrote back in March in which I stuck up for Edwin Jackson for being mocked elsewhere for having been compared to Bob Gibson. That's still hyperbole, for sure, but no longer a setup for a joke. Jackson, at age 25, has clearly turned the corner and seems at least on the road to being the elite pitcher that he was projected to be in his early 20s.

While we can't say that every prospect who starts off poorly is going to be good (because the bad ones start out poorly, too), it's very premature to write off any pitcher at this stage of his career. Roy Halladay is as fine a hurler as there is right now but was a mess at age 23. Zack Greinke also didn't turn the big league corner until he was fully 23. And remember that Hughes only has 123 innings in the bigs, which is not close to a suitable apprenticeship.

But Law is right. The Yankees can't afford to suffer through Hughes' learning. Chien-Ming Wang must pass an audition tomorrow and convince the brass that his velocity and sink are back to pre-2009 levels. His fastball ranged from 88-to-92 mph in his last rehab start (he averaged 91.8 last year and 92.7 in 2007). Then Hughes has to log a full year in Triple-A, where he only has 77 career innings, a number that seemed shockingly low when I looked it up.

While it's too early to put Hughes in the cutout bin, it's high time to demand that he learn his craft far off-Broadway. It's for his own good, too. A bitter taste of failure can serve to strengthen one's resolve, but a full serving of it serves no useful purpose and most likely gives rise to doubt that most assuredly weakens the will.