Four Reasons ( At Least ) Why Dumping Jesus Was A Horror

1. What no one is even mentioning is that Hector Noesi was also lost in the trade. Hector was a dominant, make that THE DOMINANT, pitcher in winter ball. And he is both young and battle tested in the majors.

He is better now than Phil Hughes will ever be, whether as starter ( Hughes will never be this ) or reliever ( Hughes will be given the 6th inning at best, and more often than not screw it up ).

Hector will win 16 games for Seattle this year.

2. The dip-stick Jose Campos, whom we received "in exchange " for Noesi, won't see the majors in the 2012 season. More likely, he will never see the majors. He has no upside at all.

3. Pineda not only has arm trouble, but the league quickly figured out he has only two pitches. Did we get him for a closer role? The likelihood of him developing an effective 3rd pitch ( a change-up no less) at this stage is practically zero. Hughes tried to develop a change-up and we all saw how effective that new pitch was for him last year. He threw it once for a strike and twelve times for extra base hits.

4. Related to the news of this trade disaster, mostly by timing of course, is the brilliant signing of Kei Igawa's older cousin, 14 year veteran Hiroki Kuroda of the world famous LA Dodgers pitching corps. This bum is already useless, can't throw strikes and, hopefully, it is questionable whether he can pass a physical. His 78 mph fastball, combined with his 55 foot breaking balls will surely dominate American League hitters. We can only hope he has a torn labrum that will show up on an MRI.

Don't we all know that, one way or another, Japanese pitchers will always fail at the major league level when it matters? This guy makes me happy to have AJ Burnett.

5. I know I said 4 reasons, not 5. However, Jesus has already proven he can be a monster hitter. I think Alex Rodriguez no longer can be. Alex is 37 and fading fast. His at bats in

our "one and done" playoff series were laughable. He is again watching fast balls blaze past him for strikes, then flailing at the inevitable breaking ball, a foot off the plate. Out of strikes, looking aimlessly to the sky for answers, he walks gingerly back to the bench leaving at least two runners on base. You'll be seeing this a lot with Alex milking millions as a .223 hitting DH with no power.

Extending his contract years back so that we now owe him 6 more years of bench time, was part of the disaster that now unfolds.

6. Romine, Sanchez ( see Grasslands Institute for The Mentally Unbalanced ) and the person named Murphy, will make Cervelli look like Elston Howard. They are all bums who can't hit and never will.

I will wager anyone right now that when I arrive in Tampa for the early spring training games, Pineda won't be pitching because of a balking arm tendon, brought on by trying to learn his new pitch. Kuroda will be lights out in the training games but give up 8 runs in 1 and 2/3 innings in his first outing at the stadium.