Hughes getting Jeter treatment from NY Post?

Is Phil Hughes getting the “Derek Jeter” treatment from the New York Post?

When I refer to the Jeter treatment, I’m referring to the practice of the New York Yankees of leaking negative stories and tidbits to the Post in exchange for positive coverage that makes the team look brilliant while the player looks like a jerk. The Yankees did this to perfection during the Jeter contract negotiations, making their iconic shortstop look like another greedy ballplayer, much to Jeter’s chagrin.

It looks like Hughes is starting to get the same treatment and it’s quite baffling. Sure, it doesn’t look good for the Yankees if their young stud turns out to be a bust, but it’s not like there is a huge pile of money at stake, as there was in the Jeter negotiations. Yet, here we have Joel Sherman writing about how Hughes starting camp overweight and undergoing the Yankees version of the Biggest Loser is the reason he lost his fastball. The only point of the article is to publicly blame Hughes for the problem rather than any mishandling the Yankees may have done with him last year when he went through the latest version of the Joba Rules.

As a journalist, I’m getting really tired of the Post being the Yankees’ mouthpiece. At this point, the Post is not even trying to fake objectivity. They are just taking the Yankees spin and treating it as fact. The Post is not the first source I check for Yankees information. Come to think of it, it’s usually not even in the top three sources and it is only going to drop further if the Post reporters/columnists don’t stop belittling the Yankee players on the organization’s behalf.