Brian Cashman pulled the trigger on a four player trade with the Seattle Mariners. The Yankees needed pitching and they traded one of their top prospects, Jesus Montero, and Hector Noesi for Michael Pineda and Jose Campos. Michael Pineda is a 23 year old All-Star right-hander. He has a fastball that averages 94.7 miles and hour and he strikes out 9.11 hitters per nine innings. His downside is that he gives up a lot of fly balls, not a great thing for Yankee Stadium.
Jesus Montero is a power hitting catcher but the word on him is that he can't play defense. The Yankees are hoping that this will not turn into another Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps trade. The bottom line is that the Yankees needed pitching and if it takes trading a top young hitter for a top young arm, than it has to be done. Pitching is in short supply these days. I want to see what Jesus will do.
The signing of Hiroki Kuroda is a smart move. Kuroda was the number two guy behind Clayton Kershaw and he will fill in nicely at the end of the order. If all the stars align, the Yankees have a very young starting rotation to go with CC. The youngsters are Phil Hughes, Michael Pineda, Ivan Nova and prospects Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances. The Yankees then have Kuroda, Freddy Garcia and AJ to fill in.
I like the fact that the Yankees went after some pitching and maybe this year they won't have to be such a softball team.
No comments:
Post a Comment