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Yankee News: Pineda Strikes out Sixteen in Impressive Sunday Showing

By Kat Frye

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This past Sunday at Yankee Stadium starting pitcher Michael Pineda put on a show striking out 16 of the 21 Orioles batters he faced.

In a dominant 6-2 victory over the visiting Baltimore Orioles, Pineda showcased a powerful fastball and a devastating slider looking absolutely unhittable as he tied a single season Major League record for strikeouts through seven innings.

Sunday’s 16 strikeouts tied David Wells and David Cone for second most strikeouts in Yankees’ history, only Yankee Ron Guidry (18) has ever had more with 18 K’s in 1978.

Pineda’s stellar strike ‘em out performance has highlighted a very strong year from the 6’7 inch pitcher. Pineda is 5-0 with a 2.72 era and has demonstrated pinpoint control allowing only three walks all season. He was voted the American League Player of the week this week.

This dominant performance along with an injury to Masahiro Tanaka and the struggles of CC Sabathia is moving him into position to claim the title of staff Ace.  He is beginning to become the pitcher that Brian Cashman hoped for when he sent popular catching prospect Jesus Montero to Seattle in exchange for Pineda in 2011.

At the time of this trade many fans were skeptical even though Pineda was an all-star and had made 28 appearances for Seattle with a decent 4.00 era. Fan’s worries reached a fever peak in when Pineda turned out to be injury prone and missed all of the 2012 and 2013 season with a shoulder injury.

It is 2015 now and that trade is looking better and better each time the 26-year old ace takes the mound.  Since his return to action toward the end of 2014 through this Sunday Pineda has looked magnificent.

Pineda is signed through 2018 and is arbitration eligible in 2016. This is all good news for Yankees fans who can look forward to seeing even more pitching dominance from Pineda this season.

The positive evolution of this trade which was once so roundly criticized may serve as a reminder that baseball trades are difficult to assess, and especially challenging over the course of a couple of months or even one season.

Some of this season’s transactions, including trading starting pitcher Shane Greene for shortstop Didi Gregorious and utility man Martin Prado for starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi and 1B/RF Garrett Jones are evaluated by fans almost daily. It will be interesting to see how these trades look three years from now. What do you think? Which of this season’s trades has the most potential to turn out well? Let us know in the comments below.

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