Yankees minor-league pitcher Jose Campos had Tommy John surgery on Friday, CBS Sports’ Danny Knobler tweets. Campos, of course, arrived from the Mariners prior to the 2012 season with Michael Pineda for Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi, a trade that seems to have been cursed for everyone involved. Pineda was recently suspended ten games for his pine tar incident, Montero is with Triple-A Tacoma after hitting .208/.264/.327 in 110 big-league plate appearances last season, and Noesi has been designated for assignment twice in the past month. Here are more notes from the American League.
- The Indians have been cautious with a new contract for Justin Masterson because his velocity was down in spring training, he can be inconsistent, and has imperfect mechanics, Terry Pluto of the Plain Dealer writes. That’s why they balked when he asked for a three-year contract of around $53MM this offseason, preferring a deal of around $45MM instead, Pluto suggests.
- The Blue Jays have scheduled top prospect Marcus Stroman’s next start for Triple-A Buffalo to coincide with that of big-league fifth starter Dustin McGowan, Shi Davidi of SportsNet.ca reports. That could indicate that the Jays might promote Stroman soon. Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook 2014 names Stroman the Jays’ second-best prospect (behind Aaron Sanchez) and praises the small righty’s fastball, slider and athleticism. BA ranked Stroman the 55th-best prospect in baseball before the season. He currently has a 2.18 ERA with 11.3 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 20 2/3 innings for Buffalo.
The Indians are not wrong about Masterson. I think early reports that he is a 100 million dollar pitcher will be proved wrong by this season. The Force is strong with Masterson, but he is not a Jedi yet.
I thought he played baseball.
He does. He uses the force instead of pine tar to control the movement on his sinker.
coolest sinker ever
That Pineda/Montero trade has to go down as having one of the weirdest outcomes. Pineda’s the only one who looks like he’ll provide much value at all, but that was only after going down for two whole seasons.
… and not just cheating, but cheating badly.
Ease up on the guy, it was just dirt.
Sticky, greasy, dirt.
I don’t see how this is really a weird trade: one key player was a total bust (Montero) while the other got injured and is now on course to provide real value (Pineda). The two secondary players– both unheralded minor leaguers– have both become essentially irrelevant (Campos & Noesi). But those two were hardly ever thought to be anything to begin with. None of this is surprising when the trade involved three prospects and one rookie.
I also don’t see how Pineda’s suspension for use of a substance that is universally accepted around the game (by players, managers, owners, and critics alike) makes this a “curse” for those involved in the trade… He’ll come back in a week and even if he takes a dip in productivity will still provide value to the Yankees rotation.
Do you remember what a big deal it seemed like at the time? Montero was a huge deal for Yankees fans.
And the Pineda curse is more his absence from the 2012/2013 seasons
Just when it looked like the year Campos would finally make it to high A. This has been a very peculiar trade. Campos has had injuries when he first arrived. And both Mariner;’s players ended up being bad.
I was pulling oh so hard for Stroman to drop 2 more slots in the 2012 draft. Still find it odd that he dropped as far as he did, short or not.
If he does end up being a hard throwing reliever, teams have done much worse with the #22 pick many, many times over just the last 10-15 years.
Think AA found a jewel and other GM’s picking ahead possibly got fleeced.. Again.. With some picks.
The primary lesson from the Montero/Pineda trade is never complete a trade on Friday the 13th (1/13/12).
Great handle. Great Advice.
I agree with most of what you said. It’s not entirely irrelevant as Masteron hasn’t really had consistent success in his career. Changes in his style are of concern.