twballgame9 {l Wrote}:EagleNYC {l Wrote}:twballgame9 {l Wrote}:EagleNYC {l Wrote}:Shredder {l Wrote}:That's a good deal and helps both teams. Too much is being made of the Kuroda signing. Kuroda is a sub-.500 career pitcher (albeit for a down team) going from a pitcher's park in the NL to AL hitters and the New Yankee Stadium. He'll be ok as a back of the rotation guy for the Yankees but if it took $10M to sign him, the Sox were better off not spending it.
Kuroda has enough arm to be a 3 in AL East, and is certainly an upgrade on Nova. I view this deal as aimed to accomplish something much better: push AJ out or Hughes into the pen, while letting Nova be the 4 instead of the 3.
Ivan Nova is the second best pitcher on that staff and it isn't even close. Don't get why Yankee fans don't realize how good he is. Kuroda is a 5/long reliever.
Pineda and Nova had extremely similar stats last year, with two notable exceptions: w/l and strikeouts. Because of his strikeouts, Pineda has a much higher ceiling than Nova, so I disagree that "it isn't even close." His WHIP was also lower by .2 or so. You could certainly make the case, but even though I hold him in very high esteem, I don't think Nova strikes out enough guys to be a #2. I certainly think that he'll be better than Kuroda in 2-3 years (perhaps even next year), but I'd rather Nova not have the perceived pressure, since he thrived last year when he was the nominal 4/5.
Pineda = Safeco Field
Nova = A Little League size ballpark where Curtis Friggin Granderson can hit 40 HRs
Strikeouts for a pitcher are overrated. Guys that pitch to contact with great stuff are usually the best pitchers, with notable exceptions. Strikeout pitchers are often wild and usually throw too many pitches. You can have Nolan Ryan frankly, give me Greg Maddux or Roy Halliday.
1) While strikeout pitchers do tend, generally, to be wild, the one we're discusing, Pineda, was not wild. He averaged about a half a walk more, per 9, than Nova. I'm sure his ERA will go up by a half run (at least), but that would happen to every pitcher who entered the AL East.
2) That park definitely helps certain hitters, but your example was poorly chosen. Curtis Granderson hit 20 HR on the road last year (21 at home). In 2009 he also hit 20 on the road. As a matter of fact, it's remarkable how close his number are in almost every category last year.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=grandcu01&year=2011&t=b