By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
PEORIA, Ariz. – There are times when it’s easy to forget that Joel Pineiro is just 23 years old.
As he begins his sixth year in the Seattle Mariners’ system, he seems like an established member of the team.
Maybe it’s the major league experience he already has attained, having been on the postseason roster the past two years, and going 6-2 with a 2.03 earned run average in 11 starts last year.
Maybe it’s the arsenal of major league-quality pitches – a two-seam fastball and a four-seamer, a deceptive changeup and a knee-bucking curve – that belie his years.
Or maybe it’s the shoulders-back, head-held-high strut that exudes such an air of confidence that the Mariners believe he has the mindset, along with the pitches, to be their fifth starter this year.
The fact is, this kid is 23 and it’s easy to forget he has just nine major league decisions, or that he was a freshly drafted 18-year-old when he played for the Class A Everett AquaSox just five years ago.
It’s during moments like the fifth inning of Wednesday’s exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs that you understand.
Pineiro had breezed through 4 2/3innings – plus two outs – of his five-inning start when youth and experience and maturity came into play. He served up a home run ball that broke his shutout, then he lost enough focus to cough up three more runs.
Times like that are when you realize this is a kid absorbing lessons almost every moment he’s on a major league mound.
“We expect productive innings from Joel,” pitching coach Bryan Price said. “But in the same respect we need to be able to pull back and say this kid’s 23 years old and he’s really just establishing himself in the big leagues. There’s going to be some setbacks where he takes his lumps because he just doesn’t know enough or hasn’t experienced enough yet.”
There was a time when Pineiro would consider a downfall like Wednesday’s home run pitch to Corey Patterson a monumental failure. Now, he sees it as a much-needed leap onto the learning curve.
“This was perfect,” he said, excited at the lesson learned. “You think you’re one pitch away from finishing the inning, and I guess I sat back too much. That’s why we’re here in spring training, so that it doesn’t happen during the season.”
That’s the difference between the Pineiro who’s at ease with himself today and the kid who pitched nervously last year, worrying that one mistake would earn a trip back to the minors.
“Last year I was trying to fight for a job and I had a lot of pressure on myself,” he said. “I was trying to make sure I put up zeroes and did good.”
Instead, he was awful. He allowed 23 hits and 12 earned runs in 10 2/3innings – an ERA of 10.13 – and earned a trip to Class AAA Tacoma.
Piniero got back on his feet there and, after going 6-3 with a 3.62 ERA for the Rainiers, was promoted to the majors in July. He made 11 starts and six relief appearances for the Mariners, and became a nasty presence to right-handed hitters. He retired the first 51 right-handers he faced, and righties batted just .150 off him over the season.
With that behind him, Pineiro came to spring training this year with no doubts about his stuff and no shakiness in his confidence.
“It’s from the assurance I felt from the job I did last year here, knowing I’ve got the stuff to be a big-league pitcher,” Pineiro said.
Pineiro struts that stuff. He has that dominating fastball and a confidence to match.
“A lot of the bravado with these guys is that they feel confident in their fastball,” Price said. “Joel has always felt like he has the best fastball in the league.
“He’s always been a real confident kid. When he doesn’t pitch well, he gets down on himself during that time after the game. But when he comes back to the ballpark the next day, he’s not walking around wearing his disappointment. We’ve never had to go pull him up and say, ‘You’re good. You’re really a good pitcher.’ He’s always had that confidence.”
“Now,” Pineiro says, “I feel like one of the guys. I feel like one of the five.”
Well, technically he’s not one of the five yet.
Pineiro remains in a three-way duel for the fifth starter’s role – against right-hander Ryan Franklin and lefty John Halama – although he’s the one getting the ball every fifth day and pitching like he deserves it.
Pineiro allowed just two hits and no runs in his first two exhibition starts, but has coughed up eight runs in his last nine innings. He hasn’t allowed a walk all spring, and Price hasn’t seen evidence even in the rough outings that Pineiro has pitched himself out of the rotation picture.
“It’s not about your linescore. It’s about if the team walks off winning or losing,” Price said. “Everyone would like to go out there and pitch shutout innings every time, but it’s not going to happen.”
When days happen like Wednesday, or last week’s outing when he allowed eight hits and four runs in four innings against the Giants, Pineiro now treats them as learning experiences and not the end of his world.
“Bryan told me, ‘You’re relaxed and you’re getting ahead of hitters. But every ball finds a hole so you can’t worry about that stuff too much because it will carry over to the next outing,’” Pineiro said.
As Pineiro sees it, he went through that worrisome stage of his career last year.
“Everybody’s dream is to be a starter in the big leagues,” he said. “I think I proved last year that I can be that.”
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