THE UNNECESSARY ATTACKS ON PINEDA ARE HAPPENING

Why are certain sports outlets not giving you the whole story when it comes to the Yankees? Or, better yet, why is the slant so severe and critical? Is it because the Yankees are just not playing up the par, so they like to kick them while they're down? Is it that they just hate them?

It's funny, this morning I was going to write generally about how media outlets like to not give you the whole story when it comes to the Yanks.  I mean, if you really want to find that nugget that makes every Yankee fan feel good, you either have to search for it in a piece written from a Yankee fan perspective, like Bleeding Yankee Blue, or, you need to read guys who still treat journalism like journalism and report, not slant. Again I give my man Pete Caldera of the Bergen Record a shout out. He does it best.

Anyway... there's a point to this.  Last week I found it interesting that there was a headline in Yahoo Sports titled "New York Yankees Injury Update: Michael Pineda Placed on DL (Shock!)" Now, as a casual Internet surfer, I eyeballed the headline and just figured the dateline was from last year or something.  But it wasn't. It was from March 21st of this year.  I became curious, because... I'm protective of my Yankees.
 

Reading through the piece, it said: "To make room for Brennan Boesch on the team's 40-man roster, the New York Yankees moved Michael Pineda to the 60-day disabled list last week."  OK...Well yeah, that's actually how it went down.  I mean Pineda didn't "re-hurt" himself, the move was done strategically because of Yankee personnel. In other words, they needed to fill all the rosters and move guys around. It's a normal procedure in the Spring.  So, in other words, what's the big deal? Why are we making this headline so dramatic?

To the casual net surfer, all they read was "Pineda was placed on the DL (Shock!)", and if they're lazy enough, the reader will throw their hands up in frustration, form a negative opinion about "loser" Michael Pineda and move on. That sucks!  Now look, while Yahoo's media strategy may not seem that bad to you, the fact of the matter is, it's a very deceiving headline, don't you think?

Then, enter this piece from CBS Sports titled The Pinstriped Perils Of Yankees No-Show Michael Pineda, essentially, it's a piece attacking Pineda for getting hurt.  Now, truth be told, I've written my share, full disclosure, but I did it as a news story, when it happened, THE LEMON? was written in March 2012. Ironically, I was criticized in the Seattle Post Intelligencer (HERE) for doing what I am criticizing media outlets of doing.  The difference? My news item was topical, these news items I'm highlighting are attacks.

Look, I don't get it. Players get hurt and Pineda didn't get hurt on purpose. I had to pick this CBS piece apart, because it's mad silly.  Jason Keidel writes: "He seems to be an amalgam of the worst deals of the last decade, equal parts Pavano and Ollie Perez. Pineda now has his mailed forwarded to the DL, where he starts this season, just like last season. Just like next season?"  Well, in fairness to Pineda, he's making strides this spring and all I've been reading is he'll be ready this year, read HERE, YES Network, writing "Michael Pineda threw what was termed a “successful” bullpen session on Tuesday, throwing a 35-pitch session in Tampa that included throwing sliders off a mound for the first time." I mean, this piece is out there, why didn't Keidel reference it?

Or how about this: "Mike Francesa and Evan Roberts said the trade’s true virtues can only be measured in years, not days, weeks, or months. But you can’t have one player playing every day while Pineda has literally flatlined for the Yanks. He hasn’t thrown one pitch in the Bronx." Again, Michael Pineda got hurt, not because he wanted to get hurt, but because athletes sometimes get hurt. So yeah, of course he hasn't thrown a pitch.  While we don't like it, we live with it. And for the record, he will be back.

There's more, and this is the final example... when Keidel writes: "You can respect a New Yorker’s impulse to protect a prospect like Montero, who had so many stars next to his name and plays such a precarious position (catcher), where the Yankees haven’t fielded a Hall-of-Famer in half a century (Yogi Berra)."  Well, look, as a Yankee fan who was knee deep in the Montero drama, I can tell you that Jesus Montero was to be our future. I didn't make that up, that came from Brian Cashman and the New York Yankees.  Let's not forget that Cashman went to the media telling us that he wanted to get Montero 500 at bats in 2012, read HERE.

Then, in an unusual bait and switch, Montero was gone. The point is, of course we Yankee fans wanted to "protect a prospect like Montero", we were told we were going to!

All of this is exhausting... right now the Yankees aren't exactly winning, players are hurt, it's still cold in the Northeast, and now, all I want to do is write a positive piece about Michael Pineda and these little, irritating, inaccurate nuggets are out there waiting for me to find them.  Truth be told, I'm sick of it.

I hope Pineda comes into the 2013 season and dominates and shuts the critics up, because while we may not be "in love" with Michael Pineda the way we were Jesus Montero, love in baseball is a funny thing and things can change in a heartbeat if you believe in yourself and embrace the fans doing it.  I hope and trust Pineda will do that... he's just got to work his way back and I know he can.  

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