WHY THERE SHOULD BE CONCERN ABOUT PINEDA'S VELOCITY

Ken Rosenthal points out that while Michael Pineda may have looked decent mechanically, one has to think about why his velocity was lower than normal and if there should be concern about it. Read HERE. To be fair Ken, I was worried first.

Look, I know it’s only 1 Spring Training appearance but I’ll tell you what… I wrote WHY THE INNINGS LOAD FOR PINEDA & NOVA WORRIES ME because if you think about it, the kid is only 23 years old. Last year he had huge innings increase in his rookie year with the Mariners (171) after being in a combined AA and AAA season (139.1) the year before. It’s something to think about. I’m not expert, clearly, I just want to point that out.

Michael Pineda is also overweight (Read HERE) which no one wants to hear I know, after all, we’re already dealing with CC Sabathia who has weight issues, but at his age, he knows what he needs to do to manage to keep the weight off. Marc Carig of the Star Ledger HERE had a piece about how CC is “brown bagging it” during the spring to try and keep the weight off. I wonder if Pineda’s weight has anything to do with his velocity decline or is it just combined with his innings load from 2011. Again, I’m no expert, but pitchers are fragile and even the slightest thing could have a big effect on these guys.

Michael Pineda will be a good pitcher in New York. Even though it was his 1^st Spring Training start in a Yankee uniform, you have to understand everyone agreed, he went out there with a purpose. Sure, no doubt he was nervous, nerves come with the territory, but he knew what he wanted to accomplish and we even gave him positive feedback in WHY MICHAEL PINEDA WAS A BRIGHT SPOT TODAY. Overall, we like what we see, but in the back of my mind, we need to think about the velocity issue now, not later. Don’t forget Phil Hughes. All Spring the Yankees were “concerned” but it didn’t seem the change that fact yet he stayed in the starting rotation. Maybe that ruined Hughes last season, maybe it didn’t but we don’t want to go through that again.

Finally, and this is bothering me too, but it could just be blabber… I read HERE that Michael Pineda is not a lock for the starting rotation. Here’s a quote:

"General manager Brian Cashman opened camp by saying it was unfair for people to view Pineda as a No. 2 starter because his third pitch, that changeup, was below average.

Manager Joe Girardi followed that by handing newly acquired righty Hiroki Kuroda a rotation spot and leaving Pineda in a group of four arms vying for three slots behind ace CC Sabathia and Kuroda."

What does that mean? Does it mean that ultimately we signed a glorified young pitcher and gave away a potential Yankee superstar in Jesus Montero? Was it truly a roll of the dice on that trade? Time will tell if the Yankees and Cashman made a mistake. I would like to dismiss this piece as B.S. but it's there in black & white... it’s something we need to think about. Again, it’s early, we have time, but the Yanks need to pay attention to this stuff…no doubt Yankee fans are.

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