Pineda Showed
Promise in 2039
He showed it last year by winning 15 games in the minors between stops at Fort Worth (A-ball) and Santa Clara (AA), posting a combined 3.23 ERA, dropping about 4 WAR, and leading his team into the post season. He showed it, too, by reportedly being the guy everyone else asked about in trade discussions.
“Everyone knew we were looking for a bigger name pitcher last year, but it seemed like everyone wanted Carlos and the return just wasn’t enough,” said GM Ron Collins when asked about plans for Pineda. “We think he could be a generational kind of pitcher at the top end, kind of in the mold of Jose Chavez, but maybe better.”
Yellow Springs fans drool over those kinds of words. They want to see him, and they want to see him now.
And the argument either way is compelling.
Sure, scouts say he’s got more room to grow, but baseball folks say he’s one of those guys who could skip a level. “He could get guys out right now,” one scout said recently.
Collins was, however, hedging his bets, noting that the period that saw the exodus of Chavez and fellow ace Lawrence Columbus LaLoosh forced the team to rely on current rotation stalwarts Carlos Valle and Ernesto Ramos a season too early. “We’d all have been better off if we’d given them both an extra season in the minors,” he said. On the other hand, it’s clear he’d like to give another answer. “We’ll bring Carlos into spring training and give him every chance to prove himself to Alberto (pitching coach Alberto Sanchez). These are things the player kind of tells you all by himself. If he's ready, he's ready. Nothing would make me happier than to have him on the roster, believe me."
The one thing everyone can agree on it, seems, is that if Pineda can get himself ready this off season, the rotation would look a lot more interesting going into what is promising to be a very entertaining 2040 BBA season.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Pineda said from his home in Buenos Ares, where he’s spending the off-season visiting his parents and reconnecting with Helena Gimenez, his long-distance girlfriend. “Yeah,” he said when asked if he missed them. “It’s hard being in the states when your people are on the other half of the world.” He went on to say he’d considered bringing Ms. Gimenez with him, he laughed and said that yes, he’d considered it, but she was still finishing school, and that he didn’t want to do that until he’d gotten to a place where he knew he was going to stay.
YS9 fans are thinking Yellow Springs might oughta be that place.
And as far as the time is concerned: why not 2040?
