WHY IT'S TOO EARLY TO EVALUATE THE MONTERO FOR PINEDA TRADE

Yesterday I was on Twitter and I ran into this piece HERE. Jon Heyman of CBS wrote it. Look, I like Heyman, and I respect him. He’s a good writer and insider, but when I read the title of Pineda-Montero trade might be 1-sided, but maybe not the way you thought, I knew right then and there it’d rub me the wrong way.
I’ll try not to directly quote and criticize Heyman in this post. You can do that for yourself. I'm sure Casey would if he were to write this piece, but he respects my work so he's letting me write it my way. Anyway, back to my analysis...Basically what Heyman was doing was joining the “Pineda’s velocity is down this spring compared to last year, let’s all freak out!” bandwagon. I will admit that Michael Pineda’s velocity readings are down this spring, there’s no denying that, but I have yet to feel worried about it...not one bit.

Sure, full disclosure... we here at Bleeding Yankee Blue pointed out the "concern" about Pineda's velocity much earlier than the rest, pointing out innings load from the previous season could be a factor, perhaps his overweight frame could be, but we just suggested to "keep an eye on it". Read WHY THE INNINGS LOAD FOR PINEDA & NOVA WORRIES ME . There is no doubt the trade to get Pineda to the Yankees for Jesus Montero is something to look at, but even as bloggers we know that's a bit irresponsible to go the extra mile like Heyman is, the season hasn't even started yet. It’s March, and I’ve trained myself over the years not to get worried about stuff like this until the start of the season. I feel like if I get worried over these things I’d lose my mind by June, but that’s just me.I’ve tried to watch Pineda’s games closely, and I have noticed some increase on his fastball velocity as the spring has gone on. I saw quite a bit of 93 mph fastballs during Tuesday’s game against the Pirates and even some 94 mph fastballs, and while that’s not quite where he lives with his heater, it’s certainly an improvement from previous outings this month. Again, this shouldn’t be anything we should fret about because he’s not injured and if he was injured he wouldn’t be pitching. The velocity will be fine, and I’m sure he’ll be back to normal velocity by the end of spring training or when he makes his regular season debut.

Heyman then goes on to talk about Jesus Montero—who has driven in 10 runs this spring—the other big chip in this trade, and he says while most, if not all, scouts believe he couldn’t catch prior to the trade, some scouts on the Mariners think he can yet those same scouts weren’t singing the same tune back in 2010 when the Yankees and Mariners had negotiations about a possible Cliff Lee trade that was this close to getting completed. Why do they all of a sudden believe this? I have no idea. They must see something in him that you and I don’t. When Montero was here I, like the rest of you, viewed him as a DH that could maybe catch on occasion... nothing more, but if he did become a regular catcher he’d be no better defensively than Mike Piazza. To me, I think the Mariners were desperate. Their offense last year and years prior has been absolutely putrid. They’re the anti-Yankees and then some when it comes to overall offensive production.

Another thing that really irked me was when Heyman said Pineda would have to earn his spot in the rotation based on his pedestrian velocity. Yes, I know Joe Girardi has said that during the spring, but I don’t buy it for one second. Why would the Yankees trade a potential superstar bat for a guy who had a successful first season in the bigs as a starter and have him start the season in AAA? I don’t get it at all. The only way I see Pineda pitching in the minors is if he’s recovering from an injury and has to make rehab starts, and right now he isn’t injured.

To be honest, we shouldn’t think about evaluating this trade just yet. I say wait at least three years, if not five years, to decide who the “winner” is of this blockbuster trade. This trade isn’t just a big trade for the Yankees and Mariners; this is a big trade for the entire sport because we don’t see blockbuster trades like this happen very often considering all the pieces in the trade are very young. Can’t we just sit back and watch it all unfold rather than decide a winner based on useless spring training stats and radar gun readings?



--Jesse Schindler, BYB Lead Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter @SchindlerJesse



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