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When the Yankees traded top prospect Jesus Montero for Michael Pineda this winter, many overlooked the fact that there were two other young pitchers involved in the deal. The Yankees sent right-hander Hector Noesi to the Mariners, and they received 21-year-old flamethrower Jose Campos in return.

Noesi is already a member of the Mariners’ rotation this season and will likely give the club around 150 quality innings. If he were still a Yankee, he’d be nothing more than a long reliever because of the club’s pitching depth.

Campos, on the other hand, is currently ranked as the Yankees’ No. 5 prospect.

On Friday, he made his debut with the organization. He allowed just two base runners over six innings, combining with two other relievers to complete a one-hitter against the Rome Braves.

Through a translator, Campos had this to say about his outing: “The first inning, I was a little bit nervous. But I was able to handle it and keep pitching and keep going pitch after pitch.”

Campos struck out three and walked one in what was his first start at Class-A. Of the 65 pitches he threw on the day, 42 were strikes.

In 2009, Campos was signed as a non-drafted free agent. Last season in short-season Everett, Campos tossed 81.1 innings with an ERA of 2.32. His control was excellent, walking just 13 while striking out 85.

His performance was good enough to earn him a spot on the Northwest League’s postseason All-Star team.

Campos seems to have a very good mindset about working his way up through the Yankees’ organization, saying: “I want to continue working on the changeup and curveball. Work hard on every pitch, every day. Give a good effort every day. And, hopefully, I can get promoted.”

We won’t see Campos in the majors this season, but if he keeps improving, we could see him in pinstripes sometime after the All-Star break next season.

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The Athletics fell behind 4-0 in the first game of 2012 in the Oakland Coliseum and never recovered, falling 7-3 to the Seattle Mariners.

Starter Brandon McCarthy was less than sharp in five innings, allowing seven hits and two walks while striking out three. This marks the second time on two continents that Seattle has defeated Oakland in an “opener,” the first being a 3-1 extra innings victory on March 28th. The loss drops Oakland to 1-2 on the season.

Once again, Jason Vargas kept the A’s largely off balance. Over 5.1 innings, he allowed five hits and one walk while striking out three. His only real mistake of the game was a poorly located cut fastball that Yoenis Cespedes crushed to deep left center field, estimated at 462 feet. That one thunderclap was essentially the offense for the night until Seth Smith’s pinch hit single in the bottom of the eighth drove in the third and final A’s run of the night.

The soldout crowd of 35,067 had little to cheer about once the A’s fell behind and the long pattern of not delivering with men on base continued as the A’s went 1-7 with runners in scoring position. 

McCarthy’s troubles began in the third inning when Brendan Ryan doubled to open the frame. Chone Figgins attempted to sacrifice him to third base, but A’s third basemen Josh Donaldson hit Figgins in the back with his throw to first and Ryan would score on the play.

After a single, passed ball and walk loaded the bases, Mariners DH Jesus Montero hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Figgins. Another single scored two more Mariners and the rout was on. 

Good: Yoenis Cespedes

In spite of the fact he struck out twice, Cespedes‘ bomb of a home run in the fourth inning merits a place here. 

Bad: Josh Donaldson

In addition to an 0-4 night at the plate, his throwing error opened the floodgates in the crucial third inning. Nights like this will make the loss of Scott Sizemore look even more glaring.

Ugly: Kurt Suzuki

Suzuki also went 0-4, including two big at-bats with runners in scoring position. However, he gets the ugly distinction tonight because he also allowed two easy stolen bases and a passed ball that ultimately aided in two base runners scoring in the fourth for Seattle.

The final game of this abbreviated series takes place at 6:05 p.m. PT as Bartolo Colon again attempts to salvage a split for the A’s against Felix Hernandez, who will face the A’s three times in the first eight games. 

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As if the Diamondbacks pitching wasn’t good enough as it is, it seems they have an even brighter future ahead of them. 

On Thursday night in the Low-A baseball season opener for the South Bend Silver Hawks, the No. 7 overall pick in last year’s draft, Archie Bradley, lived up to expectations. 

Though taking the loss to the Tampa Bay Rays affiliate, the Bowling Green Hot Rods, Bradley stood out in his five innings pitched. He probably could have gone a few innings longer with the way he had the batters guessing up there, but his pitch count got high quick due to his amount of strikeouts. With this being his first start, the manager planned on playing it safe and getting him out fast to begin with. 

Bradley’s final line was 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 7 Ks and 1 BB. That brings him to 1-0 on the season with a 1.80 ERA. 

It was a tough break for him seeing that his team couldn’t put a run on the board in support, but as a minor-league player, that’s not what the big-league scouts are concerned about.

What they are looking for is speed, command and being able to control a game; and that’s just what they saw from Bradley in what seems to be the start of a very long and productive career for this 19-year-old stud. 

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I know it’s only the third game of the season, but you can’t help but get your hopes up when watching a game like this one. 

On Friday night, in what felt like the real season opener, the Mariners bats came alive. They put up seven runs on 13 hits against the Oakland A’s, including seven hits and five run against ace Brandon McCarthy. And no bat was bigger than new leadoff man Chone Figgins, who finished the game 3-for-4 with two RBI. 

After a rough two games in the Tokyo Dome last week, where he only recorded one hit in eight at-bats, Figgins seemed to be more focused at the plate back on domestic soil. Granted, two of his hits were bunts and the other was a bloop single, but he still got on base. And that’s all that manager Eric Wedge and M’s fan can ask for after his struggles at the plate over the past two years. 

When Figgins gets on base it opens up many opportunities thanks to his speed, as shown when he recorded his first stolen base of the young season. It also gives Dustin Ackley the chance to thrive in the situations he was made for, which he also did against the A’s in going 3-for-5. If those two can get on base as well as they did Friday night, then it sets up the ideal situation Seattle was hoping for when they moved 10-year leadoff man, Ichiro, to the three hole. 

Though Ichiro was hitless on the night, he came through with a sac fly to bring in the team’s seventh run of the game. If he can get productive outs on an off night, wait till he’s playing like the Ichiro we all know and love with runners on (career .334 with RISP). 

When the top three players in your lineup have the potential to be three of the best in the league when playing at their best, you are guaranteed to see the numbers soar in the win column. Once the young power trio of Justin Smoak, Jesus Montero and Mike Carp (who bat 4-6 in the lineup) all get into their grooves, the Mariners will be one team to watch out for.

The key for me is Figgins though, and if he can get on base by any means necessary like he did in Oakland, then things are looking good for the Seattle Mariners. 

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The Rockies beat the Dodgers by a score of 5-2 on Tuesday, in large part to the two perfect innings tossed by their No. 2 prospect, left hander Drew Pomeranz.

Unfortunately for Pomeranz, he was forced to leave after the second inning after experiencing tightness in his right hip.

“My hip’s a little tight,” he said after his departure. “It was tight in warm-ups, too. I was seeing if it was going to warm up at all. It’s just an annoying little thing I felt. I could have still pitched, but there’s no point in pushing it.”

This hip tightness is the same discomfort that he experienced in prior Cactus League starts, and it’s a good sign for the Rockies that he notified the team of the tightness prior to the start.

The team trainer and pitching coach Bob Apodaca were aware of the discomfort felt by Pomeranz, and he was mature enough to keep the team notified of his status.

Thankfully, the discomfort seems to have had no effect on his pitching.

Pomeranz was perfect in his two innings of work on Tuesday, striking out two. He was expected to go four frames but the discomfort obviously led to his early departure.  

So far this spring, Pomeranz has pitched seven innings, allowing no runs on three hits. He has walked two and struck out seven.

Rockies fans should not be worried about this injury. Although it seems to be a recurring thing for Pomeranz, he seems to be well of aware of its effect on him this spring.

“I knew what it was—it’s not like something that came out of nowhere,” he said. “It’s been getting a little tight after starts. Usually I feel it the next day. I don’t know if it’s just getting back into the swing of things or what. Usually the next day it’s a little tight and goes away. It’s nothing I’m worried about.”

Pomeranz figures to be a member of the team’s rotation when the regular season gets under way.

Despite being drafted in 2010—he was the first-round pick of the Indians—Pomeranz saw time in the Rockies rotation last September.

In four starts (18 1/3 innings), he posted a 2-1 record with a 5.40 ERA. He struck out 13 while walking five.

The Rockies will obviously be keeping a close eye on Pomeranz this spring, but this hip tightness shouldn’t be something that continues to bother him as the spring progresses.

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The Minnesota Twins lost to the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, FL this afternoon.

The pitching staff for the Twins was solid, allowing three runs on nine hits and three walks. Jason Marquis started the game for the Twins and had a much better outing than his last start. He went three innings, giving up three hits, walking two and allowing one earned run.

It was much improved from his 1.2 inning outing against the Red Sox on the 5th.

The story, however, remains the Minnesota Twins bats. After only managing five hits yesterday against the Tampa Bay Rays, they only got six in today’s contest. Jamey Carroll, Joe Mauer and Ryan Doumit combined to go 1-for-8 at the plate with two strikeouts.

If the Twins hope to be competitive this season those three will need to do better than that.

Glen Perkins, with the ink still drying on his contract extension, had another beautiful outing for the Twins. He worked one inning, faced three batters and struck out two. It is very possible to believe that if Twins closer Matt Capps struggles like he did last year, Perkins will be the Twins new closer.

Matt Capps worked an inning today and struck out two. Unfortunately, he also allowed two hits, one of which was a home run. The only nice thing is that the home run came with the bases empty.

Capps has been struggling some this spring, allowing far too many hits.

Next up for the Twins is a trip to McKechnie Field in Bradenton, FL to play the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates have given up five or more runs in four of their six games this spring, so it’s hopefully an opportunity for the Twins to get their offense going.

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The Yankees were no match for the newly-extended Andrew McCutchen and the Pirates today in Bradenton. To celebrate his new six-year contract with Pittsburgh, McCutchen killed the Yankees for two hits and two RBI.

CC Sabathia was given the ball to start the game—his first live game action this spring. He pitched pretty well in two innings of work, allowing three hits and a run while recording one strikeout.

When asked about how he felt, Sabathia responded, “I’ve still got work to do, but my arm feels good and my body feels good.”

He threw 35 pitches over the course of two innings.

Phil Hughes saw his first action of the spring as well, throwing 1 1/3 innings. He allowed two runs (one earned), allowing four hits and striking out one.

Although he was slated to go the full two innings, some tough spots prevented Hughes from going any further in the contest.

After having problems with velocity last season, Hughes was consistently clocked at 93 MPH on the radar gun, a very good sign for the Yankees.

Prospect Brett Marshall came on in relief of Hughes and turned in the only scoreless outing of the day for Yankees pitchers. In 1 2/3 innings, Marshall issued one free pass and struck out one.

Graham Stoneburner and Chase Whitley pitched the final three frames of the contest. Combined, they allowed nine hits, four runs and struck out two.

Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira all made the trip to Bradenton for the game, going a combined 3-for-10 with an RBI (Cano). 

Second baseman David Adams provided the team with two RBI in his 1-for-2 effort, while Francisco Cervelli added an RBI of his own on his 26th birthday.

Melky Mesa, Ramiro Pena, Chris Dickerson and Justin Maxwell all recorded hits of their own.

Prospect Zoilo Almonte, after going 4-for-4 in the previous three spring games against the Phillies, made an out in his only at-bat after pinch running for Teixeira.

The Yankees are now on their first losing streak of the season, but they should be happy with what they saw today from Phil Hughes.

Hughes put it best today, saying that it would be a “dogfight” for the fifth starter’s job, and he did plenty to impress the club with his outing. Topping at 93 MPH for nearly any pitcher is impressive in the first start of Spring Training, but it is especially noteworthy when that pitcher is Hughes—who battled dead arm for most of last season.

It will be an interesting battle all spring for the job, but it’ll be hard to deny Hughes if his velocity keeps increasing.

The Yankees play again on Wednesday against the Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

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The Yankees dropped their first game of the spring today against the Phillies in Bright House Park.

Fans got their first chance to see the team’s biggest offseason acquisition, Michael Pineda, in his start today against Joe Blanton.

Pineda, who has already lost about seven or eight pounds, did not disappoint. In his two scoreless innings, Pineda struck out two while allowing just one hit.

His changeup has been a work in progress in the early goings of Spring Training, but he reportedly used it quite effectively today.

At one point in his two innings, Pineda recorded six consecutive swinging strikes to Jim Thome and Shane Victorino.

David Robertson got the call for the third inning, and allowed one run on one hit while walking one. It was his first action of the spring.

Rule-5 pickup Cesar Cabral pitched the fourth, allowing just one hit before working a scoreless frame. Dan Burawa followed Cabral with a scoreless inning of his own.

Adam Miller then came on to pitch the sixth, and that’s when the floodgates opened. In 1 1/3 innings, Miller allowed five runs on just two hits. He issued three free passes.

Juan Cedeno came on in relief of Miller, and allowed three runs on three hits in his inning of work. He struck out one and walked one. Michael Martinez touched him up for his first home run of the spring, as well.

To finish off the game, Ryan Pope pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings. He struck out two in his impressive spring debut.

The offense totaled 10 hits during the game against the combination of Joe Blanton, Scott Elarton, Austin Hyatt, Brian Sanches and David Herndon.

Catcher Gustavo Molina went 2-for-2 in the game, and prospect Zoilo Almonte continued his perfect spring with a 1-for-1 effort. Almonte also drove in one of the team’s three runs.

Eduardo Nunez was 1-for-1 in the game, but left after being hit in the back of the right hand by an Austin Hyatt fastball. He received precautionary X-Rays, and Nunez does not believe that anything is broken.

The team is calling it a right hand contusion.

Despite the tough loss to the Phillies, the Yankees can take many positives away from this game. For starters, Zoilo Almonte is proving to the team that he can hit.

Almonte, a high ranking prospect in the Yankees system, will definitely be making a case to be placed AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to begin the season.

Another positive was the strong showing of Michael Pineda. Even with all the hooplah surrounding his weight issues and the fact that he has yet to develop a serviceable changeup, Pineda pitched a very strong two innings today.

The team will be hoping that Nunez’s hand feels better within the next coming days, as he will be an important bench piece for them this season.

The Yankees’ next game will be on Tuesday in Bradenton where they will take on the Pirates. 

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Michael Pineda made his first start for the New York Yankees against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Yes, it is only spring training and not a regular season game in New York, but he was impressive nonetheless.

Almost nobody questioned Pineda’s pure stuff, but there have been questions about his mental status because of his big move to New York.

In the first few days of spring training, Michael Pineda was surprised at the massive amounts of media attention.

ESPN New York’s Wallace Matthews explained what happened.

“Michael Pineda’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he was surrounded at his locker by the 11 intrepid members of the Yankee beat this morning. After all, all he had done was throw some live batting practice to Colin Curtis and Melky Mesa, an “event” that would have gone largely ignored when he was a Seattle Mariner.”

Matthews later went on to explain how Pineda temporarily ducked the media after a bullpen session, although he did eventually take a short interview and explained how he slightly changed the grip on his changeup.

“So instead of discussing his “outing,” Pineda politely asked for some time to get his head around the concept of a press conference after an early spring workout. He promised he would talk to us “in a few minutes.” He then disappeared into a circle of teammates and never did return to give his assessment.”

That new grip seemed to work against the Phillies because Pineda came out and had a great outing for the Yankees.

Pineda threw two innings, gave up one hit, zero runs, struck out two batters and walked zero.

The game started off a little shaky as Pineda allowed Jimmy Rollins to lead off the game with a single to center field, but he settled down after that and sent six-straight batters back to the dugout and like spring training starts for most pitchers, he was pulled after two innings.

It does not look like the media attention is getting to him yet, and his new changeup looks like it is getting better. All he needs to do is keep doing what he is doing and get into shape for the beginning of the season.

Of course, we do not know how he will react to the media in New York, but it does not look like the media in Florida is distracting him.

This is a good start to the season for Michael Pineda. Let’s just hope he keeps it up as the Yankees head north in a few weeks.

Will Michael Pineda become the ace we all expect him to be? Who knows? But he started off his Yankee career on the right foot.

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The St. Louis Cardinals made some major moves to take care of two weaknesses at the trade deadline: relief pitching and defense. Those two factors were the difference in the game Friday night as the St. Louis Cardinals took a 3-2 series lead against the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS.

Albert Pujols and David Freese continued to do their share of the offensive damage as they combined for two hits, a walk, two runs and an RBI on three of the Cardinals’ runs.

Matt Holliday, for the second night in a row showed indications that his finger is recovering as he went 3-for-5 with two RBI and a double. 

Catcher Yadier Molina also started showing signs of getting his bat going as he went 3-for-4 with one RBI and one run. 

But the real story in Game 5 of the NLCS for the Cardinals was again their bullpen, as they threw for 4.1 innings and gave up zero runs. The Cards bullpen on the series has now thrown 21.2 innings—just one less than that Cardinal starters—have given up only 12 hits over that span, and have a collective ERA of only 1.69. 

Part of that is the brilliance of Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa getting the right pitcher in against the right batter. Many of the key pitchers are also those who who were acquired at the trade deadline or off the waiver wire. 

Friday night’s winner, Octavio Dotel, was one of the pitchers picked up in the trade with Toronto and picked up his second postseason win.

Marc Rzepczynski, aka The Alphabet, pitched a key out to get Prince Fielder to strike out with two men on base. 

Lance Lynn was moved to starter after he came off the DL, in part because the trade for Edwin Jackson allowed that luxury. Lynne pitched 1.2 scoreless innings in Game 5.

Finally Jason Motte has solved the “closer” problem whether he’s officially the closer or not. While he’s not a new acquisition, he’s been the primary closer since the trade deadline, and has only blown one save since and has an ERA. 

Motte has now been perfect in 8.0 postseason innings, retiring all 24 batters he’s faced this year, and in one inning of work in 2009. 

The other major factor in the game was defense, as four Milwaukee errors resulted in five Cardinals runs. In adding Rafael Furcal before the trade deadline, the Cardinals addressed their largest defensive liability.

The Cardinals were one of the worst offenders in the regular season in terms of giving up errors, but in the postseason they’ve only committed three—fewer than what Milwaukee did in the latest outing.

For now, the Cardinals and Brewers will face off in Miller Park on Sunday afternoon, though that may change should Texas win Game 6 Saturday and clinch their series.

Should that happen, it’s likely the St. Louis-Milwaukee clash would move to the prime time slot at 7:05 PM EST. 

The projected starters in that game are Shaun Marcum and Edwin Jackson, another acquisition.

Marcum’s postseason ERA of 11.25 does not bode well though. Should the series go to a seventh game, it is likely aces Chris Carpenter for St. Louis and Yovani Gallardo for the Brewers would square off. 

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