Bad news for the Yankees today, as they found out that their promising young starter, Michael Pineda, has a tear in his labrum and will miss at least a year.
As most of you know, Pineda was acquired in the offseason in a trade which involved the Yankees' former top prospect, Jesus Montero, a highly regarded hitter. Most observers were fascinated by the trade -- a promising young pitcher for a promising young hitter (and two more minor prospects, one on each side thrown in).
We here at Fonzie Forever canvassed our Yankee fan friends, and found most of them to be in favor of the deal. After all, Jesus Montero was a player without an obvious defensive position, and Michael Pineda had already established himself in the big leagues at the tender age of 22, with a 3.74 ERA and 173 strikeouts in 171 innings for the Mariners last year.
Although it was too early at the time to judge a winner or a loser (and in fact, even with Pineda's injury, it is still too early to tell who will ultimately win or lose) Fonzie Forever always felt that trading a promising young hitter on the cusp of the big leagues for a promising young pitcher is never a good move. The attrition and injury rates among pitchers is simply too high. For that reason, we didn't think it was a wise move for the Yanks.
Either way, bad luck for the Yankees. And although I am an avowed Yankee-hater for life, you hate to see bad things come about as a result of injuries.
All the best to Pineda in his recovery, and Yankee fans, worry not -- I'm sure I'll be watching the pinstripes in October anyway (jerks).
