Saturday, November 5, 2016

It's time we had a talk about Michael...

The breathless Baghdad Bobs of YES love to say that we won the great Michael Pineda/Jesus Montero trade of 2011, even if by default. (Once the 3rd best prospect in all of baseball, Jesus last year hit .317 - mostly singles and doubles - at the sporting Mecca known as Buffalo, before testing positive for Arnold juice and getting suspended; he's now a minor league free agent, or something resembling one.) But the secondary question is whether Pineda has been a Yankee positive... or just a long, fruitless waste of our time. For this existential dilemma, I offer no conclusion. The answer, my friends, is blowin' in the wind. The answer is blowin' in the wind.

(Note: We STILL won that fukking deal, because we also got Vincente Campos, whom we traded to Arizona last August for Tyler Clippard! So woopie THAT.)

Pineda is one of those rare pitchers best characterized by wins and losses, a generally deceptive - if not useless - stat. Last year, on a team that finished over .500, he went 6-12. (Think of it this way: If he goes 9-9, we make the Wild Card.) Over his career, he is 32-37, and that seems to sum things up. He loses more than he wins.

Occasionally, he pitches zeros, fans 10 or 12, and makes us think he's figured out the cosmos, and he's about to become an ace. An inning later, he will be in the shower, having given up five runs, all with two outs. Wait: Did I mention that he cannot get the third out? That his mind just seems to float over the rainbow? Or that now and then, he does incredibly stupid things, such as slather his neck with so much pine tar that the Redsocks have no choice but to call him out on it? And then, while serving his 10-game ban for the pine tar fiasco, he hurts himself in a simulated game and then misses a month, and then sucks when he returns? Did I mention that? Because that's the Michael Pineda we know.

We have him for one more mystery season - one more - though I sense we all know how this will play out. We've seen the Ivan "Super" Nova movie. Thus, Pineda will be consistently inconsistent, drive us batty through June, get traded at the deadline for two nothing burgers, then adjust his arm angle and pitch lights-out for some National League team in a roomy park. If I were the Pirates GM, I would call Cashman once a week, making sure he knows my interest.

The truth is, enigmas like Pineda drive teams crazy - and I suspect it's even worse for Cashman, who bases his moves on analytical printouts - which simply do not matter.

Pineda is the worst thing that can happen to a starting rotation. You just keep thinking he'll be good. And someday, he probably will be - but not with the Yankees. I'm starting to wish we kept Jesus.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

IT'S ACTUALLY PRETTY SIMPLE WHEN YOU REALLY THINK ABOUT IT.......WITHOUT A LEGIT CHANGEUP OR OTHER "3RD PITCH", PINEDA IS ALMOST A CLONE OF IVAN NOVA.....IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE, A SUCCESSFUL STARTING PITCHER NEEDS 3 PITCHES TO TURN TO......YOU ARE PROBABLY DEAD ON ABOUT HIM BEING TRADED TO AN N.L. TEAM FOR 2 NOTHING BURGERS, WHERE HE WILL AMAZE HIS NEW TEAM........MAKES YOU WONDER ABOUT ROTHCHILD.....COULDN'T HE TURN ONE OF THEM AROUND???.....COULDN'T HE TEACH ONE OF THEM A 3RD PITCH?.....I GUESS NOT.

Alphonso said...

We would be far better off with Jesus, because he cannot hurt us as a minor league player. Clearly, Pineda has hurt us and cost poor old Hal a fortune.

If we had a pitching coach, we would change his arm angle by about 80 degrees, and maybe have a winner.

That's what Pittsburgh is for.

We lost the trade. Tyler Clippard helped us get through a lot of innings, true. All leading to a long winter's rest.

Who gives a shit?

JM said...

Some Breitbart and Trump followers could explain the centuries-old conspiracy by the Rothschilds and Knights of Malta to control global finance and politics. They haven't yet caught up to the pitching coach end of the plot and the collusion with Hal and Joey Binders to destroy the Yankees. You can look it up on the internets, everything there is true.

Anonymous said...

Nova left the Yankees for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the best pitching coach in baseball, Ray Searage. Something I've railed about for the past four or five years, and continue to do, is allowing two pitch starting pitchers not named Randy Johnson or Ron Guidry, to pitch at the ML level. Few have success with just two pitches. Ivan Nova leaves, suddenly throws up to five pitches, and looks like Cy Young's little brother. I can't blame Girardi or Rothschild, but it's clear that Nova didn't suddenly find three pitches because of his move to the Pirates. Not only did Nova use at least five pitches after leaving the Yankees, but he seemed to have better, control as well as confidence in all of his pitches. I can't place blame on anyone, but I think a closer look is definitely in order. No pitcher wakes up the day after a trade and finds three new pitches.

Parson Tom said...

anonymous declines to place blame, but I tend toward the low road.

Off with their heads!

Girardi? He's a dead man. Rothschild? Dead!

Anonymous said...

IVAN NOVA DID NOT, AND DOES NOT HAVE 5 PITCHES......HE HAS THE SAME STUFF..... IT'S VERY SIMPLE, HE WENT TO THE LEAGUE WHERE THE PITCHER BATS 3 TO 4 TIMES A GAME.....IF HE CAME BACK TO THE AMERICAN LEAGUE, HE WOULD BE THE SAME PITCHER.

Isiyku Abdulahi said...


I really want the world to know about this great man who brought back happiness into my life again after my husband left me and the kids 3 years ago for another women online when i contacted Dr Believe he cast a love spell for me within 48 hours my ex husband start calling me and begging for forgiveness for everything that have happened between us. I was so happy to have my family back together with love again here is the email of Dr Believe via believelovespelltemple@gmail.com a man with the great powers you can also call him or add him on Whats-app: +2348156148821
God bless you
I am very grateful for your help in my marriage.