2012 Michael Pineda Performance Thread

[StaleMilk]

Whether he is placed on the DL or sent to the minors, he is almost certainly NOT starting the year in the majors. The Yanks are super cautious with their young pitchers. Even if the MRI comes back clean they'll probably shut him down for a few weeks.

Especially ones they traded their top prospect for.

[Mr Coffee]

I believe it was Curry who said during the game that Pineda felt soreness before the game.

Are they still saying that or are they now saying it happened during the game?

[CoyoteYankee]

Whether he is placed on the DL or sent to the minors, he is almost certainly NOT starting the year in the majors. The Yanks are super cautious with their young pitchers. Even if the MRI comes back clean they'll probably shut him down for a few weeks, which would probably mean he doesn't pitch in the majors all of April.

You are probably right. At this point I am thinking that a stint in the minors might be good thing and, if this is nothing serious, it could give the Yankees the perfect excuse to do it.

[Yankee Fan in Boston]

It could be normal soreness but would it shock anyone if the Yankee organization used this as a opportunity to just send him to AAA and work on him irrelevant of how serious or not serious the injury is?

I could see them putting him on the DL regardless and working with him in EST

[Shadoux101]

So you think he has been pitching with a sore shoulder all spring?

I don't. The shoulder was a result of trying to create velocity and his arm being in a horrible position making up for the lack of power from his lower half and how he was opened up up top.

His lift is not as efficent as it could be. It brings him forward instead of staying tall and back. He is falling towards homeplate and has to correct himself pretty much wasting his windup and strech. He is already out of position.

He isn't nearly as stable on the back leg (you can see by how high is on release now compared to last year). His foot isn't planted and he is fighting over his body to correct this and he has already started to throw.

He has already wasted a good part of his lower half and he won't be able to create the same velocity without it. His shoulder is compensating trying to square to homeplate and creates incredible torque on the shoulder trying to make up for the lack of torque he is creating due to his poor lower half mechanics so far (look at his hip rotation from last year to this year).

His head and chest aren't square to homeplate and he isn't nearly as close to homeplate as he was last year at this point in his delivery. He is in a very poor position using all his arm still trying to make up for the lower half's position.

He is then leaning way to the left failing even further then he did last year because he is unable to correct himself. He is not even on target for home with his body.

Yeah, his shoulder was the by product of what he was doing. Fix mechanics a bit and strengthen those legs.

[THEBOSS84]

So you think he has been pitching with a sore shoulder all spring?

For the record -

Jack Curry ‏ @JackCurryYES Girardi on Pineda; "I'm concerned. We will know more tomorrow, obviously." Girardi said shoulder problem could explain drop in velocity.

[Yankees13]

The Yankees are just cursed with young pitching. They should just go with hired guns and try to break in Pettitte/Wang/Nova unheralded types as 5th starters.

[CoyoteYankee]

I don't. The shoulder was a result of trying to create velocity and his arm being in a horrible position making up for the lack of power from his lower half and how he was opened up up top.

Interesting. This makes sense to me. Tomorrow I am going to watch some video of him from last year vs this spring to check it out.

[spikeowenfan]

May I also take this time to point out that the "verge of tears" writer was George King? I'd love to see a tape of the interview to see if Pineda was really on the cusp of a bawl session or whether this is the Post's customary creative interpretation of truth.

definitely.

Pineda seems very knowledgeable when he's talking about pitching so the fact that he says it's normal soreness and that he didn't take himself out of the game is keeping me from making an emergency trip to the liquor store right now. Him overthrowing could explain his poor performance tonight. The breakdown in mechanics, being a bit out of shape, and the fact that young pitchers lose a little velocity sometimes can explain why he couldn't crack 94 even though he was throwing his hardest.

It's crazy that literally 4 hours ago I would have put Pineda's chances at making the rotation at around 98% and now its probably the inverse of that. I'd much rather see him go to extended spring training than triple AAA, though.

[YESSIR!]

Agreed.
This is from the Yankees website:
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news/...s_nyy&c_id=nyy

Pineda was despondent as he talked to reporters following his 2 2/3-inning outing at George M. Steinbrenner Field, in which he permitted six runs and seven hits and did not have command of his fastball.

Asked to pinpoint the area that bothered him, Pineda pointed to the back of his right shoulder.

"Today my arm is a little sore. Most of the time, it's not," Pineda said. "When I'm throwing, it's a little sore. It's normal. Sometimes every player doesn't feel 100 percent if they play every day, you know?"

Pineda said he told the Yankees about the soreness after he was lifted from the game. He said that he had also been opening his left shoulder too much in his delivery, causing his fastball to run.

"I don't know. I tried to pitch my game," Pineda said. "I tried to throw harder today. I don't know what was my velocity. I tried a couple of times."

These are quotes you just don't want to see. Not only talk of injury but also admitting he's thinking about the velocity concerns and might be stepping outside his game to try to address them. I mean, you want him to throw the gas if it's there, but I hate to think Pineda was out there straining himself to jog his fastball a little more. If it's not there it's not there; just PITCH.

[justtxyank]

Ridiculous. I don't get it. How many times do we have to see this before the Yankees start doing precautionary MRIs? It drives me up the wall.

It's one thing for posters on this forum to do the same song and dance each year about why velocity isn't important, but you'd think the Yankees as an organization would realize that velocity drops are worth an MRI.

Randy, Joba, Hughes and now Pineda. All had a velocity drop. Each one got played off as "doesn't matter, velocity isn't important, don't be hysterical, yada yada yada" and each one turned out to have an injury.

[Shadoux101]

Interesting. This makes sense to me. Tomorrow I am going to watch some video of him from last year vs this spring to check it out.

I have a video of last year in this tread if that helps you.

Look at his glove. Sloppy glove...sloppy mechanics.

Look at how low the body is when releasing. In General, lower body position is the result of going forward towards home plate more, more drive/power, better extension/hop (think dave roberts). It also is usually a good sign of shoulder strain. The more direct and low to home plate can tell you there is less shoulder/arm strain becasue they are using their legs and using them efficiently.

Look at follow-through.

[THEBOSS84]

Ridiculous. I don't get it. How many times do we have to see this before the Yankees start doing precautionary MRIs? It drives me up the wall.

It's one thing for posters on this forum to do the same song and dance each year about why velocity isn't important, but you'd think the Yankees as an organization would realize that velocity drops are worth an MRI.

Randy, Joba, Hughes and now Pineda. All had a velocity drop. Each one got played off as "doesn't matter, velocity isn't important, don't be hysterical, yada yada yada" and each one turned out to have an injury.

The reason I can't agree with you here is that Pineda passed a thorough physical in January when the trade was made.

[justtxyank]

The reason I can't agree with you here is that Pineda passed a thorough physical in January when the trade was made.

And then he showed reduced velocity in ST. He could have tweaked his shoulder in long toss or in the first ST game. After the second game when he was still down in velocity he should have had an MRI.

Also, watching the game today he was grimacing like crazy. I can't believe nobody went out there to yank him as they saw it.

Edit: Does the physical include an MRI? I don't think it does.

[CoyoteYankee]

And then he showed reduced velocity in ST. He could have tweaked his shoulder in long toss or in the first ST game. After the second game when he was still down in velocity he should have had an MRI.

Also, watching the game today he was grimacing like crazy. I can't believe nobody went out there to yank him as they saw it.

Edit: Does the physical include an MRI? I don't think it does.

Someone tweeted (Sweeny Murti?) that the physical included a shoulder MRI.

Yeah...it was Sweeny. https://twitter.com/yankeeswfan/stat...18413229662209

[YESSIR!]

On January 14 this forum did not warm up to a suggestion that Michael Pineda could open the season in the minors:

http://forums.nyyfans.com/showthread...71#post7427071

Who cares? It was January 14th. Do you ever not troll?

[CoyoteYankee]

On January 14 this forum did not warm up to a suggestion that Michael Pineda could open the season in the minors:

http://forums.nyyfans.com/showthread...71#post7427071

Clearly things have changed.

[THEBOSS84]

And then he showed reduced velocity in ST. He could have tweaked his shoulder in long toss or in the first ST game. After the second game when he was still down in velocity he should have had an MRI.

Also, watching the game today he was grimacing like crazy. I can't believe nobody went out there to yank him as they saw it.

Edit: Does the physical include an MRI? I don't think it does.

I don't know if the physical included an MRI, but I'm sure it was extremely thorough and they obviously were pleased with the results. You're right I guess, something could have happened after the physical.

[justtxyank]

Someone tweeted (Sweeny Murti?) that the physical included a shoulder MRI.

Yeah...it was Sweeny. https://twitter.com/yankeeswfan/stat...18413229662209

That's at least a little reassuring.

[dabomb2045]

Ok...now I'm a little concerned. Anything involving a shoulder always scares me.

[Yankee Tripper]

TJS I could live with. Shoulder issues, quite another thing. Pray for tendonitis.

[spikeowenfan]

I believe it was Curry who said during the game that Pineda felt soreness before the game.

Are they still saying that or are they now saying it happened during the game?

I've seen this a couple places, but I didn't catch it during the game. It doesn't make any sense that Curry would know about Pineda feeling soreness and the coaches wouldn't (or that they would let him labor through 70 pitches after being sore) so something is getting misreported.

[BronxYanks45]

is it me or soreness and low velocity is exactly what Phil Hughes had last season. Couple that with the rumor that Pineda showed up to camp overweight/out of shape like Hughes in 2011.

I'm really starting to think its poor offseason conditioning

[awy]

dude is too fat?

[DieHardYankeesFan732]

is it me or soreness and low velocity is exactly what Phil Hughes had last season. Couple that with the rumor that Pineda showed up to camp overweight/out of shape like Hughes in 2011.

I'm really starting to think its poor offseason conditioning

I was thinking something along those lines.