Happy birthday to Jeff Mathis (29) and Chien-Ming Wang (32). Here's the latest from their respective divisions, the AL East and NL East…
- Michael Pineda is headed to the disabled list with shoulder tendinitis, but John Harper of The New York Daily News says the trade was still the right move for the Yankees even if the right-hander won't pay dividends right away.
- Nationals manager Davey Johnson told reporters (including MLB.com's Bill Ladson) that the team is close to bringing Jason Michaels back. Washington released the outfielder earlier this week.
- The Orioles released a handful of minor leaguers according to Steve Melewski of MASNSports.com (on Twitter). Among those released were former big leaguers Josh Banks and Jeff Larish.
- The Yankees saved about two months of salary by releasing Russell Branyan and re-signing him to a new minor league deal yesterday, reports MLB.com's Bryan Hoch.
Hitting the DL is probably the best thing to ever happen to the Yankees and Pineda. While it’s terrible for a player to ever get injured, but I think the time to rest and get himself rehabbed will work out better for him. My concern now is that… hypothetically, what if all our current starters do well. Pineda and Pettitte are both ready to make their returns. Who stays and who goes?
The chances are slim that all 5 do well. Nova has struggled a bit this spring and there could have been a chance he was sent back instead of Pineda. I don’t think Pineda would be in the bullpen if he returned. So I think Garcia, assuming he is the worst of the 5, would get moved to the bullpen
Every team has that, some players have off years. You always seem to hit an injury or a down year, is nice to have at least someone that can fill up if an injury happens.
i honestly believed they were going to send Pineda down to AAA this year, his stuff didnt look good, and he was out of shape. Hopefully he learns a lesson like Hughes did last year and works out in the offseson. Probably a lost year for him, but that doesnt concern me, we need him for the future, I’d rather get him back 100%, dont care about the time table. Montero has been looking awfully good so this just makes it worse. But I cant blame the Yanks for making this trade, a young #2 is more important than a young DH, we all knew that a pitcher is always more riskier. At least we have some stud possitional players like Gary Sanchez, Mason Williams, and Dante Bichette JR deep in our system, and 3 MLB ready pitchers, 2 others with high celings. Not all is wrong in Yankee land.
Agreed, Montero sucked to lose, but thinking rationally there is absolutely no place for a young dh on this team. To think arod and jeter will be able to do 160 games in the field is crazy. If he could play catcher that is a different story, but even the M’s dont seem to be putting him there.
The M’s plan on making him catcher next year. With Olivio and Jaso here, they plan on easing him in. After all the scouts said Ackley will never be a Major League 2B, I have a hard time believing someone when they say so-and-so can’t play D. Catcher D is overrated, anyway. The Yankees did fine with Posada all those years.
As long as Montero can catch better than Rob Johnson i think he’ll be fine haha.
Yeah the M’s do plan on making Montero catcher, he’ll DH most of this season though. I really hope Pineda bounces back, he’s a good kid and i want to see him flourish in NY.
I’m confused.. why would you release Michaels in the first place, only to bring him back?
makes no sense right now. maybe due to ankiel not being ready for opening day.
Because of the new CBA rules, the Nationals save about 100k for releasing him before Opening Day, and resigning him to a new minor league deal. Many teams are doing this…
My major worry is whether Pineda can handle NY media/ pressure, hes been the talk since hes been traded, and every little thing he does will be scrutinized. Hes still only 22 but the media will find any way to tear him down if possible. Not everyone is made for NY, its not his fault, but hes going to have to mature quick.
And he better not drop any rap singles…
Well as much as I’d love to see Pineda crash and burn in NY, I seriously doubt Cashman would have pulled the trigger on that trade if he had questions about Pineda handling media scrutiny.
I’d think the bigger worry would be him entering camp out of shape and his velocity down. I gotta think there’s a couple of people in that dugout who need to give him a serious talk.