Pineda/Rainiers Game Thread, 6/28/10
Jay Yencich · June 28, 2010 at 7:24 pm · Filed Under Game Threads, Minor Leagues
Since Tacoma is having issues with their radio stream, you can tune into the Sacramento River Cats feed, where Curto is co-broadcasting with Sacramento’s usual guy.
What you’ve missed:
Rainiers taking a lead a two-run shot by Tui.
The first inning: Pineda striking out leadoff man on six pitches, then fly out, and then another strikeout on seven pitches.
Lineup:
SS Woodward
LF Tuiasosopo
1B Nelson
RF Winfree
DH Carp
C Moore
2B Hannahan
CF Halman
3B Mangini
P Pineda!
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13 Responses to “Pineda/Rainiers Game Thread, 6/28/10”
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Chris Carter struck out on a slider. From the objective description of its movement, there seems to be a strong possibility that it stank.
Dallas McPherson struck out too. On three pitches. He swung at all of them.
Matt Carson gets a full count and then drills one to center. BOOOOOO. Moore apparently ran up afterward and told him not to sweat it. Curto says it’s the first home run against Pineda since April 17th, so Pineda might not know what just happened.
Josh Donaldson hits a soft liner to Hannahan.
Pineda has struck out four of six for his outs.
11 Ks and 1 walk in 6 innings? Boy, that’s tough to complain about.
Yeah, I agree, despite giving up the 2 HRs you got to be pleased with 11:1 K:BB against a decent offensive club. Jay, any word on Pineda’s velocity tonight or how often he used his slider/change and how they looked?
I only got a couple innings in because then I had dinner, but I heard a few mentions of the slider and it seemed to be pretty nasty.
Jay,
Do you think Pineda has a shot at the rotation next year?
I could be talked into it, but I personally don’t want to push it. His totals now are the second-most he’s ever had, and after he hit 138.1 innings in ’08, he only pitched 47.1 last year.
It was also about 103 today in Sacramento. So probably not ideal conditions. He is continuing to dominate with great command.
I’d like to see him slowed down and brought up for the bullpen in September and have him start off in Tacoma next year to lighten his work load. Ease him into the rotation.
I really don’t want to see him in the bullpen ever. I’d rather wait and see him next year as a starter, even if it was mid-season.
Jay’s point about the innings is a good one though. It’s hard to know how much is too much.
I think we should all hope that Pineda doesn’t have to be in next years rotation.
While the current regime has been very conservative with promotions, I can’t help but feel his AAA promotion is based upon having him make the rotation next Spring.
He could probably be serviceable as a back-end starter as is, but it would hurt his development into a potential #2, and I really hope the Mariners can find more appropriate arms to fill the void left by Cliff Lee-and to a much lesser extent, Ian Snell.
The problem is, I don’t see any contender trading any decent MLB ready starters in a Cliff Lee deal, and the best arms you could probably get (Jennry Mejia?) are all about as developed as Pineda anyway.
I get the sense from Jay and Jason Churchill that part of the reason for the promotion (if not the entire reason) is to force Pineda to use his slider and change-up more often and to force Pineda to pitch from the stretch. Pineda has not had to either very often, because he has dominated AA. Some temporary time in the Mariners bullpen in September might be useful, because he might enter the game with runners on base and because he will not be successful, unless he uses his slider and change-up.
With the exception of the innings argument, I don’t see any reason to wait on Pineda. He’ll be 22 next year and that seems to be just about the age when the good ones are in the majors.
These guys were all starting in the majors at 22 or younger:
Felix, Kazmir, Sabathia, Bonderman, Zambrano, Harden, Cain, Cueto, Peavy, Brett Anderson, Scott Olsen, Hamels, Liriano, Greinke, Beckett, Danks, Kershaw, Ervin Santana, Porcello, Cahill, Gallardo, Volstad, Sheets, Garland.
So his slider was good tonight?
Do you happen to have a % of his pitches thrown for strikes? It’s what ESPN does for Strasburg.
He threw 69 of 99 pitches for strikes, so let’s just say 70%. I don’t know the breakdown from one pitch type to the next though.