By Evan Brunell

Phil Hughes' outlook didn't look so good several days ago when it was thought he suffered from thoracic outlet syndrome, which is basically compressed blood vessels in the shoulder.

That ended up being ruled out when Hughes went to St. Louis to have a full workup done to test for it. While that means the Yankees still don't know what's going on with Hughes exactly, the Yankees believe it is tied to inflammation and gave the right-hander a cortisone shot last Thursday that seems to have paid divdends with Hughes feeling "110 percent better," GM Brian Cashman told the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

Now, all the Yankees can do is wait. In two weeks, Hughes will begin a throwing program with the aim of returning Hughes to the Yankees a month after beginning the program. Even as good as Hughes feels, all that matters is what the radar gun reads when he gets back to a mound and no one at this point knows if that velocity will return.

The Yankees are somehow getting by with Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia in the rotation, but a healthy Hughes is still better than the two and will go along way toward addressing New York's pitching depth.