MAILBAG Tom Verducci will answer select questions from SI.com users in his Baseball Mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

Yankees right-hander Phil Hughes and Red Sox lefty Jon Lester have posted similar, albeit mediocre, results so far. Which phenom do you you see as having a higher ceiling and will go on to have a better career?
-- Jun Shimmachi, Tokyo

Great question, because I have begun to think that people may be expecting too much from Hughes. Don't get me wrong. The guy is really, really good, but I don't know if he's Santana/Peavy/Halladay good. He may not be a knockout No. 1 starter the way some have anointed him -- at least not so soon. But I'd still give him the edge over Lester, because Hughes, despite being younger, allowed fewer baserunners and struck out more batters than Lester in the minors.

Wow, a Baltimore fan questioning the Devil Rays' existence given how bad they have always been is pretty funny. The only reason Baltimore has not been the worst team in the AL East for the past seven season is because of the Devil Rays. The Orioles have managed one season with a winning percentage over .475, so be careful what you ask for. The Devil Rays go away and the Orioles lose the 18 games a year against the Devil Rays which they've been able to use to get their records those seven seasons to the low .400s.
-- John Holecek, St. Petersburg

Nice comeback. The Orioles are 92-70 against Tampa Bay. In other words, the Rays make the O's look like a playoff team. That's not easy to do. But I still think Baltimore is a sleeping giant in baseball: great tradition, great ballpark, great fans.

Re: Bert Blyleven. Go over to baseball-reference.com and compare Blyleven's stats to Bob Gibson's as adjusted for league average while they played. It's hard for me to understand why Gibson is supposedly so good and Blyleven isn't in the Hall of Fame, except that Gibson pitched under rules where ERA's under 2.00 were possible.
-- Richard Aronson, Oakhurst, Calif.

You're not going to convince me that Blyleven was as good or better than Gibson. Give me each pitcher at his peak and there's no way I'd trade Gibson for Blyleven. But if your point is that Blyleven isn't as far off from Gibson as many people think, you may have a point. Take their very best seasons as ranked by relative ERA. Gibson does have four of the best six seasons between them. But stretch it out to eight and each can claim four.

It may seem shocking to the uninformed, or at least those out east, but Chris Young is pitching better baseball right now than anyone in the majors. Are Jake Peavy and him the best one-two punch in the majors? They both seem to be headed to the forefront of the NL Cy Young race.
-- Ricardo C., Portland

I really like Young, but we have to see how his back holds up. Looks like he might be back on the mound this weekend. And yes, the Padres could be a very scary postseason team behind Peavy and Young. But at this rate don't expect Young to get more Cy support than Peavy or Brandon Webb. Young won't even win 15 games, but what's really not in his favor is his huge home park advantage. His home/road split has to be considered (0.66/3.59).