Finally, a reason to be a baseball fan in January—with the Hot Stove burning down to periodic rumors about Prince Fielder going somewhere for something, the New York Yankees traded the Seattle Mariners top prospect Jesus Montero and rookie Hector Noesi for rookie ace Michael Pineda and even younger short-seasoner Jose Campos. The Yankees get their young starter, and the Mariners get a middle of the order bat in rapidly shifting positional repute.
↵It's rare you see a challenge trade this balanced—position player prospects are more dependable than pitchers, but Pineda had an outstanding season in the Majors and the prospect joining him on the way to New York has more upside than Noesi. If anything, Montero, for all his fearsome prospect list rankings, is more of a projection case than Pineda, who struck out 173 batters in 171 starts for a league-average ERA in his true rookie season.
↵Could it be that both teams actually did all right here? I'm not really prepared to deal with a trade like that, especially when the Yankees are involved. Somebody needs to get ripped off, and soon.
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