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.

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 intoa circle of teammates and never did return to give his assessment.

Oh, well. For the record, Pineda threw 50 pitches, 25 each to Curtis and Mesa, got a swing and miss from Mesa with his refurbished changeup, and generally impressed his catcher, Gustavo Molina, with the early action on his slider. He looks like he will do well when the team gets to New York.

Now if only he can figure out this silly daily press conference thing.

UPDATE: Later in the day, Pineda did consent to brief interview session although he never did seem to understand why a bunch of reporters would want to ask him about throwing BP. He said he flet good and that his changeup, for which the Yankees have slightly adjusted his grip, was coming along. I asked him if he ever got interviewed by 11 guys in Seattle after a BP session. He laughed and said, "Good question. No.''

I advised him to get used to it. He just shook hi shead in bewilderment.