Obviously Sox fans will side with Clay and Yankees with Hughes, there's a few key points you left out though. One being Clay is about to be 26 and Hughes is about to be 24, pitchers usually enter their prime around 26.
Sure Clay has a hard fastball and a hard slider that Hughes doesn't possess, but Hughes command is clearly better. Unfortunately it is tough to discern which is more important, pure stuff or control, and who has the better combination of the above for that matter. So we will have to wait and see who has the more successful career.
Non baseball related Clay also loses some points with me for when he was arrested shortly before the 2005 draft after he and a friend stole 29 laptop computers from his high school to sell them
Perhaps his ERA will stay around 1.35 this April and drop to around 2.96 ERA with a 1.10 WHIP the rest of the year, not walking a single batter in 8 innings and shutting down a potent offense like the Angels shows the potential is there. I have a feeling this will be the last year we see him pitching, it would be nice to see him go out with a bang like Mussina did in '08, racking 20 wins
Sure the new OF Defense helps but Pettitte said his elbow feels great this year which I'm sure is the main reason he's pitching so well. Its has bothered him over the course of his career, I remember he had a start scratched back in 2008 because it was inflamed
If Rays don't make it to the playoffs this year they will be out of luck, Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena will be gone next year. From what Rays owner Sternberg said, they'll be down to the $50 million range, or lower. Bartlett and B.J. Upton are getting expensive enough, and close enough to free agency, that they may be trade candidates.