New York Yankees form the best pitching line-up in AL East – MLB News
New York Yankees have signed on Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda to help out their ace C.C. Sabathia this season. The Yankees' ace gave some impressive results last season but he was unable to handle the pressure in the playoffs. To power Yankees pitching line-up, Brian Cashman has already made some great moves.
Pineda made headlines with his controlled and accurate pitching last season. In his first Major League Baseball season, the 23-year-old went 9-10 with a decent 3.74 ERA. Striking out 173 batters in 171 innings, he made the most of available opportunities in his rookie year with Seattle Marines.
However, Pineda is convinced that there is still a great amount of room for improvement in his game play. Working with Yankees coaching staff, he will be hoping to give consistent results at this level. The hard throwing pitcher was traded for catcher Jesus Montero with the Mariners a few days ago.
"He may very well be the best player I've ever traded, and obviously I've been doing this a long time," Brian Cashman said. "He's that good. ... He's going to have a heck of a career."
The Yankees also signed a $12 million contract with former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Hiroki Kuroda earlier this month. Kuroda produced match winning performances for the Dodgers last season. Posting a 3.07 ERA in 202 innings, he achieved his career best MLB stats in 2011. At the age of 36, he will be hoping to help the Yankees with American League East division title before he calls it a career.
With Pineda, Kuroda, Ivan Nova, A.J. Burnett, Phil Hughes and Freddy Garcia in pitching lineup, C.C. Sabathia will be looking to help the Yankees win the World Series convincingly in 2012.
"I just have to make sure I stay on top of things, watching my diet so I stay strong for the end of the season. I’m a big guy and I’m always going to have to deal with it, and I’ve been dealing with it my whole career,” Sabathia said. “It’s up to me to get in shape to be able to pitch.”
It will be interesting to see how effective the Yankees' pitching line-up handles the top tier teams in the upcoming Spring Training and subsequent regular season.