Pressure is on Pineda in Yanks debut

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 05 April 2014 | 18.18

The ocean of money, insane hype and unreasonable expectations fell on Masahiro Tanaka's head.

While Friday night's starter against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre is being counted on to bolster the Yankees' rotation, Michael Pineda is equally important to how this season shakes out.

Tanaka cost the Yankees' $175 million and will knock down $22 million of it this season. Pineda cost the Yankees Jesus Montero, who has turned into a bust, and will make $538,000 this season.

Tanaka was 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA in 28 games (27 starts) for Rakuten in Japan last year. Pineda? He appeared in 10 minor league games after missing all of 2012 due to tricky shoulder surgery.

So why is Pineda considered a key? Because the Yankees have spent two years attempting to get him right, and they still believe a healthy Pineda is an above-average major league pitcher.

Saturday against the muscular Blue Jays Pineda makes his Yankees' debut, but there was a time when not everybody was convinced Saturday would arrive for the 6-foot-7, 265-pound right-hander from the Dominican Republic.

"I had questions," manager Joe Girardi said "When we watched what he went through there were questions about when we would get him back. Would we get the Michael we had seen before in Seattle with the good slider and the velocity?"

One night after moving Alfonso Soriano from designated hitter to his preferred left-field position, with the hope of getting the right-handed hitter going, Girardi left Soriano out of Friday night's lineup for what turned into a 7-3 Yankees win over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

"He is a little off timing wise,'' Girardi said of Soriano, who was hitless in three games against Houston and whiffed four times. "It's not really a concern of mine, I know he will get going. He has always been a streaky guy.''
Soriano to the bench wasn't Girardi's only move.

"I had a lineup kind of made up in my mind, and I changed a little bit because of what we went through,'' said Girardi, whose club didn't get to the team hotel until 6:30 a.m. Friday. "I made a few adjustments but all these guys will be back in there [Saturday].''

Girardi and others described the flight from Houston as scary because of lightning that filled the cabin and storms that bounced the plane.

"The first half-hour it was OK and then for the next 45 minutes it was knuckleball express, as bad as I have seen,'' Girardi said.

Joining Soriano on the bench were Derek Jeter and Brian Roberts, who entered the game at second base after Mark Teixeira strained his right hamstring and had to leave in the bottom of the second inning. Dean Anna started at short and Yangervis Solarte at second before moving to third when Kelly Johnson took Teixeira's place at first.

Dick Groch, the scout who signed Jeter, was on hand Friday night and chatted with Jeter before the game.

Groch, a special assistant to Brewers general manager Doug Melvin, will be following the Yankees, leading to speculation at some point the Yankees will be interested in Milwaukee third baseman Aramis Ramirez, who will turn 36 in June.

Ramirez, a career .286 hitter with 354 homers and an .846 OPS, makes $16 million this year. There is a mutual option for $14 million next season with a $4 million option.

Anna was tagged with a nickname by Girardi before the infielder started in his first major league game.

"Raccoon,'' Anna said of what Girardi calls him. "It's because of the nose. I have a little bigger nose. It's all good, all fun.''

Anna, acquired from the Padres during the winter for pitcher Ben Paulis, spends the offseason working with kids at the Bo Jackson Foundation outside of Chicago.

Jeter, who didn't play Friday, needs one hit to tie Paul Molitor (3,319) for eighth place on MLB's all-time hits list and fourth place on the all-time AL hits list.


Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Pressure is on Pineda in Yanks debut

Dengan url

http://makananrasaenak.blogspot.com/2014/04/pressure-is-on-pineda-in-yanks-debut.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Pressure is on Pineda in Yanks debut

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Pressure is on Pineda in Yanks debut

sebagai sumbernya

0 komentar:

Posting Komentar

techieblogger.com Techie Blogger Techie Blogger