Why Joel Piñeiro was Good Last Year!

when he basically ceased using his four-seam fastball

I would hardly call 36% ceasing to use his 4-seamer

I think he said

and then it became his go-to pitch in 2009, when he basically ceased using his four-seam fastball. In 2007, he used his four-seam fastball 54% of the time. 36% in 2008. 11% in 2009.

meaning 2009 was when he basically stopped using it

…from a Cardinals blog called BIRDLAND.

That works for me especially since we didn’t give up a draft pick. Pineiro is a type B so the Cards just get a compensation round pick if they offered him arbitration, which I don’t remember if they did.

don’t know how good the STL defense was, but we could possibly be an upgrade in that respect? that can’t be bad…

fitting into the rotation?
Weave is our #1…but after that its pretty much a toss up…maybe Kaz #2?

Pineiro could be a #3?

For some reason I thought Pineiro was something like 35, but I guess that’s because he joined the Majors at such a relatively young age, at 21.

Relatively cheap, and for only two years is good! Hopefully Pineiro will turn out to be Chupa 2.0 and not WTE 2.0!

just another Garland signing, but without the decent track record. Hopefully this “sinker” sinks and he doesnt get hit very hard. Let’s go Pinata!

This guy sucks.

He had an ERA over 5 in the National League in 2008, he had a lucky free agent season, and then got lit up by the Dodgers in the postseason. Yeah, the Dodgers.

The American League is going to hammer this guy.

It’s Pineiro not Piniero. Here we go again with the i before e thing again (Mark Teixeira).

sounds so much better than O’Sullivan vs. Lee in SafeCo. I feel good about this.

Also, great breakdown in this post. Very insightful.

A lot of money for an unproven “one-seam sinker”.

I remember hearing he added a new pitch, but this spells it out in detail. Thanks. It makes me feel a lot more confident in the Ninja on this signing. I was originally pulling for Jason Marquis if we didn’t land Lackey or Halladay. But now I think this might not be a bad signing.

Who was it on our staff last year that added a new pitch mid season? Was it Jepsen? When a pitcher adds a new pitch it can mean one of two things: a last desperate attempt to cling to a baseball career in the throes, or a crafty way to evolve into a more versatile athlete. It looks like with Piniero it might be the latter. Let’s hope so.

I recall the Halo batsmen licking their chops whenever Pineiro was on the hill for the M’s. Woof.

He learned it years ago from former Arizona Diamondbacks pitching coach Bryan Price. He would throw a few of them every so often while with Seattle as a starter. But when he went to Boston and slid into the Red Sox bullpen, Pineiro ditched it. He felt being a reliever meant tapping into his power pitches and relying more on his four-seam fastball. "Instead of being 2-0 and 3-1 and having to throw that hard four-seamer," Pineiro said, "now I can throw 87, 88, with a lot of movement on it." Pineiro threw a few of the sinkers in his final couple starts last season, and that was enough for Dave Duncan to suggest he lean more heavily on it. He wanted him to get a grip he was comfortable with. Two-seam. One-seam. Whatever. As long as it sinks. Now here’s where Pineiro’s dad comes back into play. Pineiro gained faith in the one-seam sinker quickly during spring training, but mostly because it allowed him to be aggressive in and on the edges of the strike zone. If he’s going to live by the groundball, die by the groundball, then it’s essential to keep walks to a minimum so that when a groundball or two bounces through the infield there aren’t, say, mitigating baserunners.

Pineiro article featuring the above quote

As you can see, the pitch is not specifically attributed to wunderkid pitching coach Dave Duncan (he’s had the sinker for a while), although he encouraged Pineiro to use it more. When he ditched it (joining the Red Sox bullpen) he struggled. So if you were worried that leaving the coaching staff of the Cardinals would have the effect of him ‘losing’ the pitch, maybe your fears are alleviated.

What I really like is that he uses it when he is behind in the count, instead of challenging hitters with a weak four seamer, he seems to have found a go-to pitch that resulted in one of the best K/BB ratios in the majors (at 3.89 he sits just behind Halladay, Haren, Vazquez, Grienke, Verlander, Cliff Lee and just ahead of Lincecum, Lester, Beckett, Carpenter).

Living and die-ing by the ground ball is perfect when coupled with a small walk rate, and our awesome infield (and double play) defense. As a no. 5 starter (who went over 200 innings as well last year) Pineiro is a nice little pick-up. Solid move.

The only thing I can see people have a legitimate reason to be upset is the cost, but that argument still doesn’t hold much weight. The club had more money to spend, the area we need the most help is pitching, so why not put it towards (arguably) the best starting pitcher still out there?

The only realistic in-house option at this point is Palmer, whose upside would result in an ERA around 4.50, likely without the lucky run support he had last year. I’m confident in the guy, but how much more can he really improve? He’s safe, he’s cheep, but his potential is purely mediocre.

All the other options could stand to mature a little in AAA. I don’t think anyone can make a strong argument against that.

Pineiro has been shaky in certain years and inconsistency can be scary, but look at some of the other guys on this staff as well. None have been in the league as long as Pineiro, so the sample size is smaller, but each one has showed some level of inconsistency.

Last year Pineiro had the best BB/9 ratio (and every other walk statistic, for that matter) in the league, he threw two shutouts, and had an ERA well under 4.00. Weather you buy all the talk about how he has developed a new pitch, he gets a lot of ground balls and kept the ball in the park last year. He has proven that he can perform at an elite level in the big leagues, so why not take a chance? What else is Arte supposed to do? If Arte is willing to spend money to take a chance on a guy who has proven himself before, why not?

his fastball top off at

End of my post as to why he was good

…just quoted us from this post:

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/2107/which-pineiro-are-angels-getting

Of course, being the notorious Angel hater that he is (how many years in a row has he predicted the A’s to win the West now?), he fails to comprehend the key parts of the post. Not surprising.

Now, let me take this opportunity should he still be paying attention to this to say: Eff you, you horrible, biased son of a…

That felt good!

Lets get him to learn a new pitch every year until he becomes Bob Gibson.

http://www.breitbart.tv/tv-weatherman-makes-unfortunate-comparison-to-snow-fall-measurement/