We already told you that Michael Pineda was lousy for the Yankees against the Phillies Friday night. He threw 71 pitches without escaping the third inning, and his velocity was down again, with his mechanics allegedly out of whack. Potentially even worse? I'll give you potentially even worse:
Pineda said his arm was sore tonight, and when asked where exactly, he pointed to back of right shoulder.
— Sweeny Murti (@YankeesWFAN) March 31, 2012
Pineda insisted that the shoulder discomfort was normal, but it also took a while to get him to admit to any shoulder discomfort at all, and unsurprisingly, the Yankees are going to investigate:
After complaining tonight of soreness behind right shoulder, Michael Pineda will have MRI tomorrow morning.
— Sweeny Murti (@YankeesWFAN) March 31, 2012
A hurt shoulder would explain ... pretty much everything. Reduced velocity. Reduced command. Inconsistent mechanics. The Yankees, of course, don't want Pineda to have a hurt shoulder, but at least it would be an explanation.
As part of the offseason trade, Pineda underwent a thorough physical, including a shoulder MRI that he obviously passed. If anything in there is wrong, it's gone wrong fairly recently. So Yankees fans can't complain about damaged goods, not that that's any consolation at all. Like, seriously, that is zero consolation.