I believe everyone has heard about the whole Michael Pineda incident with the use of excessive pine tar. In case you haven’t, on April 10th against the Red Sox Pineda had a foreign substance in his right palm which then later was known to appear like pine tar. Michael refused to say it was pine tar and stated “it’s dirt.” even though the replays clearly showed that the “foreign substance” was pine tar. Pineda managed to get away with that pine tar incident and get the win that day.
Fast forward to April 23rd, also against the Red Sox, but this time in Boston. Pineda gave up two early runs in the first inning and then very blatantly put a whole lot of pin tar on the side of his neck when he came out to pitch the second inning. The pin tar was so visible that most likely all the fans in the stadium noticed it. Red Sox coach John Farrell quickly let the home plate umpire know about the incident and Pineda got tossed out of the game.
Why would Pineda do this? Not only did he make himself look horrible, but he made the sport of baseball look horrible as a whole. The worst part of this case is that Pineda went back and used pine tar a second time, and excessively, even after he knew the league and media was on to him since the first game against the Red Sox.
It is very tough to defend Michael Pineda at this point; it is sad to see a major league pitcher try to gain an edge on other players the wrong way. Instead of trying to cheat, Pineda should look to regain and display his talent that he once potentially showed when he was a rookie with the Seattle Mariners.
In his rookie season with Seattle, Pineda had a 9-10 record with a 3.74 ERA that earned him a spot on the all-star team and a fifth place finish in the rookie of the year voting. Soon after, he got traded to the New York Yankees for a package centered around catcher Jesus Montero. As of right now, that trade has become close to a disaster for both teams! Pineda suffered injuries that kept him sidelined until now and Montero showed up to camp 40 pounds overweight causing Mariners general manager Jack Zduriencik to lose all the expectations he had towards him.
In a league where veteran pitchers like Bartolo Colon and Tim Hudson continue to thrive even at their older ages and with the history of going through tough injuries, Pineda, at only 25 years of age should still have a lot left in the tank and his injuries shouldn’t be an excuse for this situation.
With this situation showing up, it has been said that some pitchers have used or at least tried using pine tar in games before, but not the way Pineda did in these two games, clearly showing it. I still believe that most pitchers don’t need or use pine tar when they pitch.
Pineda finally received a 10 game suspension which he most likely won’t appeal as he lied when he said he was using dirt in the game on April 10th and then admitted he used pine tar after his ejection on April 23rd, his excuse being he could not grip the baseball well. Pineda should have received a longer suspension, he made everyone look bad, himself, the New York Yankees, and the league. But even after this 10 game suspension ends, Michael Pineda will be marked for life with this pine tar incident and everyone will be suspicious of him.
