Feeling a little better about Pineiro

I was trying to follow up on yesterday’s headline with another Clint Eastwood movie reference, but I don’t think “A fist full of dollars” or “High Plains Drifter” really fits the topic of Joel Pineiro; although, I could probably work with the fist full of dollars reference, but I digress…

Okay, so I’ve had a little time to digest the Joel Pineiro signing and I’ve had a chance to read and listen to some reactions. I can honestly say that I feel better about it today than I did yesterday.

Now that doesn’t mean I wasn’t pleased with the signing to begin with. I’m just “cautiously optimistic” as I wrote yesterday.

One of the reasons I feel better is because I read “Why Joel Pineiro was Good Last Year" on Halos Heaven’s blog. From Halos Heaven: “Joel Pineiro sucked until he developed a two-seam fastball. He didn’t have one until 2008, and then it became his go-to pitch in 2009, when he basically ceased using his four-seam fastball (which doesn’t have much movement). In 2007, he used his four-seam fastball 54% of the time. 36% in 2008. 11% in 2009. Meanwhile, he basically didn't HAVE a two-seamer in 2007 and prior, with it only being 3% of his pitches in 2007, but then 23% in 2008, and then a whopping 59% in 2009.”

The inspiration for the post came from an earlier posting by FanGraphs’ Dave Allen, who goes into a lot of detail about the evolution of Joel Pineiro and ir's definitely worth reading.

Bottom line, I feel good about the signing. I’m still not jumping up and down with excitement, but I’m pleased (the last time I jumped around like a crazy man; the Angels had signed Torii Hunter).

A funny thing about yesterday’s post; it apparently caught the attention of Jeff Biggs at AM830, who was kind enough to mention it on his show today. Biggs read some of what I wrote about his reaction to the signing. Unfortunately, it sounded like Biggs thought I was “ripping” him, when in fact I really wasn’t.

I just think Biggs was making the signing out to be a little bit bigger deal than it really was. Again, it was a nice pick up, but not earth shattering by any means (at least not in my opinion). In any case, he and I exchanged emails and it's all good. He doesn't really think I was ripping him after all.

I would have not have even known about "Biggsy’s" mention of True Grich, but my wife Cheryl happened to be in the car and listening when it happened and called me. I only got to hear a little bit and have to admit, it’s kind of strange hearing someone talk about you on the radio when you can’t respond. In any case, it was very nice to be mentioned and hopefully, I’ll have a chance to call into the show one of these days and to meet Biggs in person.

The fact that there is a station even talking Angels baseball at this time of year is pretty awesome. It wasn't that long ago that this would have only been a dream for Angel fans.