THE PINEDA-MONTERO DEBATE IS BACK

Here it comes again....another debate. Which team comes out on top? It's the never ending battle. It's like having a debate with a friend of "which came first" the chicken or the egg? In that case I do not care because I eat both. In the world of baseball it's "who won?" because let's face it....we are Yankee fans and we always have winning on the brain. Well, there is yet another chapter to this never ending saga.

It has been revealed HERE that Jesus Montero is back in action once again for the Mariners. Since the trade he has not lived up to expectations in Seattle and he was sent down to the minors. Now, he is back again and was officially called back up on Thursday. Montero, who hit .270 with eight homers and 40 RBI in 59 games at Triple-A this season, will play mostly against left-handers and see the majority of his time at DH and not catcher. Sounds impressive, but I am not going to get ahead of myself just yet.

Not to discredit Montero, because I have nothing against the guy but I feel like some people in Seattle have officially taken their pom poms out of their dusty trunk and are getting ready to throw a big pep rally.

Sure, Michael Pineda is on the shelf for right now and there has been a lot of controversy around him this season but Montero isn't exactly a superstar down in the Pacific Coast League.

Hitting a ball in motion isn't exactly easy, so I don't want anyone to misread this. I play softball, I know it isn't exactly easy and that isn't the same thing. However, the Pacific Coast League isn't exactly a pitcher's paradise. You won't find many impressive arms like Masahiro Tanaka or Felix Hernandez right now. It is very much a hitter's league down there, so it isn't unreasonable to say that Montero's stats are a little skewed. He may have been raking down in AAA but now he is going to get another test that he hasn't faced in awhile. Things look good now, and Mariner's fans may be pointing and laughing, but let's not count those chickens before they hatch, ok?

On the other side, I know Pineda isn't exactly a "favorite" amongst many fans. I have even heard rumblings of giving him one more chance to prove himself before cutting him loose. Maybe there is some truth to this, but at this point it is just heresay. If there is any truth behind this it wouldn't exactly hurt the Yankees. He is arbitration eligible next year so if they are ready to move on it won't be hard to do. If they do, it's not like we lost a lot. We still have a lot of young catching talent down in the minors....and honestly, right now I am on the John Ryan Murphy train right now. In my eyes, he IS our backup catcher and he earned it.

So who is the winner right now? I still say neither team is stealing the show. All I do know is, we seem to have less to lose right now and we are still in the playoff hunt with a weaker pitching rotation, and I'm ok with that. I have always been a glass is half full girl though.



 --Jeana Bellezza, BYB Senior Writer and Editor
Twitter: @NyPrincessJ


 

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