"But there's a presence about him that's very unusual. His stuff is special."
The kid started the season at Class A Tampa, breezed through the Double- and Triple-A levels like a vacationer in a Mustang convertible and was summoned by the Yankees on Aug. 7.
In five big-league appearances, he has yet to allow a run. Mark Newman, Yankees senior vice-president of baseball operations, says in 19 years he cannot recall anybody jumping four organizational levels to the majors. He's not alone.
"I've spent a long time in this game and I don't think I've ever seen a player with his kind of stuff who has an idea," Yankees designated hitter Jason Giambi said. "Most kids that talented are able to get away with mistakes, but he's got such a good idea of what he's doing he learns from his mistakes, too."
The Yankees chose Chamberlain as a first-round sandwich pick in last June's draft, a compensatory pick for losing veteran Tom Gordon to free agency. In addition to being the highest-drafted Native American in history, he brings the added bonus of owning an electric, 99 mph fastball and a breaking ball that bites harder than an angry snake.
Hughes was a first-round choice in 2004 and has been the Yankees' best hope for the future ever since. Baseball America, in fact, ranked him as the top right-handed pitching prospect in all of baseball for 2007. His fastball clocks around 92, and his breakthrough came two springs ago when Mike Mussina helped him refine his big curveball.
Though Hughes walked five in Monday night's loss, he's now 2-1 with a 4.96 ERA in six big-league starts.
"His pitch count was very good," Torre said of Hughes' 92 pitches over 6 1/3 innings. "I thought this was by far the most competitive game he's pitched."
Chamberlain lockers next to Roger Clemens in Yankee Stadium and follows him around asking questions like a persistent high school student working to get into an Ivy League school. And when he's not quizzing Clemens, he's picking closer Mariano Rivera's brain.
"He always asked good questions," Rivera said.
This spring, Cashman proclaimed that the Yankees' young pitching is as good as anyone's in the game, and darned if Hughes and Chamberlain, also 21, earlier this month became the youngest pair of Yankees to appear in the same game since 1965, when Mike Jurewicz and Gil Blanco, each 19, faced Baltimore.
Clemens first caught Hughes and Chamberlain together in May, in Tampa, when he was limbering up to rejoin the Yanks.
"I had a handful of these guys in Tampa, that's what first opened my eyes," Clemens said. "They're not only young, but they're quality pitchers the Yankees have. It's a unique situation in that they've got to learn on the job. But both of them are extremely poised."
Chamberlain had started 15 of the 18 minor-league games in which he appeared this summer, and the Yankees plan to move him back to the rotation soon -- probably by next season. Things might get complicated if Rivera leaves as a free agent this winter -- Chamberlain seems to have the makings of a killer closer -- but that's grist for the offseason.
For now, the Yankees' 2008 rotation in theory could include Hughes, Chamberlain and even Ian Kennedy, the young (22) right-hander who was New York's first-round pick in last June's draft and has been lights out this summer at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre.
Not that things are perfect down on the farm. Humberto Sanchez, the big kid acquired from Detroit in last winter's Gary Sheffield trade, is out for the year following Tommy John ligament transfer surgery. That was a tough one -- Sanchez was one of the starting pitchers in the 2006 Futures Game.
Meanwhile, Ross Ohlendorf, one of the key pieces acquired from Arizona in the Randy Johnson deal, has been so-so in Triple A, going 3-3 with a 5.13 ERA and working in relief in seven of 16 games.
Still, "there are three or four guys down there ... I was very impressed with the poise of the kids," Clemens said.
And Giambi got a look at some of the young pitchers while rehabbing late last month and early this month in Scranton and personally delivered a glowing report back to the Bronx.
"Cash asked me how my rehab was going, and then he asked me, 'What do you think of the kids?'" Giambi said of the Yankees GM. "I told him, 'Unbelievable ... dude, every kid you run out there, out of the 'pen or as a starter, throws 95. Ian Kennedy, he's awesome.'
"I'm like, 'You guys did a great job of stockpiling young kids who are on the verge.'"
