Baseball offseason, let's get ready for 2014.

[EagerBeaver]

The NY Post is reporting that a possible problem for every team besides the Dodgers and DBacks is that Tanaka's wife (a pop singer) prefers to live on the west coast. Apparently Tanaka's wife's singing career has stalled in Japan and she may hope to revive it in LA. Unfortunately the only city the Tanakas have visited is LA. This does not bode well for everyone outside of LA...................

http://nypost.com/2014/01/21/yankees-pursuit-of-tanaka-may-not-pay-off-like-it-did-with-cc/

http://nypost.com/2014/01/14/meet-the-pretty-pop-star-who-could-steer-tanaka-to-l-a/

 

[EagerBeaver]

Yankees Land Tanaka!!!!!!!!

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/sto...ork-yankees-agree-seven-year-155-million-deal

 

[Merlot]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I see it's time fpr Yankees fans to gove away the Cy Young amd all other awards...just like last year.

Tanaka's deal with the Yankees is worth $155 million over seven years and includes an opt-out clause after the fourth year, his agent, Casey Close said in a text message. Close had a deadline of 5 p.m. ET on Friday to have a contract and physical completed with the ace pitcher's new team.

With the posting fee that's $25 million per year. What a groveling desperate pathetic organization.

Don't get the language of my post wrong. I am ROFLMAO in hysterics at the stupidity. It's just so Yankees being Yankees. :crazy: The funniest part is the opt-out clause, the same one they gave to others who then pinched the team to bully big raises. Unbelievable!

Maybe Joe.t will now stop promoting the Jays and become a Yanks fan again. :lol:

RIDICULOUS !:thumb:

Merlot

 

[EagerBeaver]

Merlot- 6 major league teams made offers to Tanaka in excess of $120 million. We do not even know if the Yankees made the best offer at this point. What do you have to say about the other teams' offers?

The Dodgers signed Clayton Kershaw for $215 million for 7 years. It sort of goes without saying that these contracts are crazy. The Dodgers payroll is $270,000,000 and more than the Yankees by a lot if I am not mistaken. What does that make them?

The Yankees made a business decision to spend money because they want to win and keep the team competitive. I would rather root for a team that wants to win than a team that is content to merely be competitive. Of which there are many.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I was listening to the Jeff Blair Show on FAN590 earlier and they were comparing Tanaka's cost to the Yankees very similar to Kershaw's cost to the Dodgers if you include the salary tax.

They also mentionned that what they'll pay him to play for them is nearly identical to what the Dodgers gave Zack Greinke just a couple of years ago in what was then a controversial signing due to the amount of money they had agreed to pay him.

Will the Yankees have anything left to sign a quailty infielder? I can't see them starting the season with Kelly Johnson at 3rd and Brian Roberts at 2nd. And will Derek Jeter be able to remain healthy? How many games does he have left before he retires? Many callers were surprised by the move considering the Yankees need to rebuild and supposedly Tanaka can opt out of his contract after the 3rd or 4th year. It should be interesting.

 

[Merlot]

Merlot- 6 major league teams made offers to Tanaka in excess of $120 million.

Really,

The post I made yesterday is perfectly inclusive and conclusive. There's no reason at all for your question. They are all stupid.

Let's look at just the top 10 biggest previous MLB long term contracts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_paid_Major_League_Baseball_players

Of the top 10 none performed as expected. They all either underperformed, deteriorated, failed badly, or mostly didn't play at all. Some were only in the first year of their contract and still couldn't live up to the previous year.

My view isn't an anti-Yankee one. It's these very long term huge payment contracts that are ridiculous. But of any team the Yankees should know the lesson of being that stupid, and they are caught in their own trap of being desperate for a winner, but destroying the long term team building investment through their farm system.

The Yankees simply never learn and that's the funniest part. The definition of insanity is doing the same failed thing and expecting a different result...ie...they're NUTZ!

Now your fanboys will come along and use the old "sour grapes" crap. Except The BOSTON RED SOX ARE THE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS. This signing is the desperate act of a...SOUR GRAPES organization.

:noidea:

Merlot

 

[EagerBeaver]

I think the plan is to play Brendan Ryan at short and DH Jeter. Ryan is a high end defender who is a pitcher's friend.

ESPN is reporting that the Yankees' 8 man contingent that went to meet Tanaka and Close in LA flat out sold Tanaka on New York. Note that Tanaka and his wife made all the MLB teams who offered him come to LA. They never went to any other city. I presume Tanaka spoke to Kuroda, Ichiro and Hideki Matsui, who now lives in the NYC area, about living in the NYC area.

Merlot, you forget that signing Sabathia and Teixeira brough the Yankees a World Series championship in 2009. Even though the Burnett contract was a disaster, he did help the Yankees that year. It was sort of like what the Red Sox got out of Dice K.

The bottom line on these deals is whether you win, and the Red Sox did get 1 championship with Dice K on their team.

 

[EagerBeaver]

"The Yanks had made Tanaka their No. 1 priority this season. They scouted pretty much every one of his starts last year. A few weeks back, they sent an eight-person contingent to Los Angeles to meet face to face with Tanaka and his representative, Casey Close.

The group was team president Randy Levine, general manager Brian Cashman, manager Joe Girardi, pitching coach Larry Rothschild, assistant GM Jean Afterman, assistant GM Billy Eppler, translator George Rose and Trey Hillman. Hillman was hired this offseason to work in the Yankees minor league system, but he managed in Japan from 2003-07."

http://nypost.com/2014/01/22/yankees-sign-masahiro-tanaka-for-7-years-155m/

 

[Merlot]

I presume Tanaka spoke to Kuroda, Ichiro and Hideki Matsui, who now lives in the NYC area, about living in the NYC area.

BS,

I wouldn't be surprised if he spoke to all of them, but it wasn't at all about living conditions in NY. Tanaka's not a country hick. He knows what any city offers in living style and surely LA has all NY has and more with the glam connections. So that was irrelevant, especialy considering his salary which puts him in the most posh areas of any city he chooses.

It was about what a money cow the team and city are and how you can bilk cash out of them just as easy as inhaling the city smog. I'm sure they are all now applauding, especially how the Yanks got suckered into another option clause. Tanaka definitely knows what the Yankees are...that's why he went there.

As for Greinke, he was very good his first year, not outstanding. So was Sabathia...how's he doing now after you said he'd be worth his contract.

You got A-Rod the same way and ended up with maybe the ugliest and most bitter player-team relationship in all of sports history. :thumb:

I'd bet Cashman's FORMER budget limits had calculated the chances the Red Sox wouldn't be winning anything for a long time, and therefor he felt safe he could talk about budget control without the risk of a HUGE embarrassment from his greatest team rival. OOOOPS! Bye bye budget. :lol:

Cheers,

Merlot

 

[Special K]

The mind boggling part for me is that the guys going to make $22M/year and he's never even thrown a major league baseball pitch.

 

[EagerBeaver]

SK,

It's certainly a legit question to ask how good Tanaka really is, but scouts think his split fingered fastball is the best in the world. He does not have as wide a repertoire as Yu Darvish and does not have Yu's overall number of quality pitches, but his stats in Japan were actually much better than Yu Darvish's were. What he has besides the split is great control, durability, and a gamer makeup. The Yankees scouts saw every game he pitched last year so if he turns out to be a bust it is on them. One concern is I read he threw 160 pitches in his last start of the Japan series, and then relieved the next game. Just hoping that they did not abuse the guy knowing he was a goner, but if you look at his body it looks like a big durable body as compared to other Japanese pitchers.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Matsui Credited With Assisting Tanaka Recruitment

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/10332556/new-york-yankees-needed-masahiro-tanaka-got-him

"Matsui put in a call to Tanaka, too, and that didn't hurt, nor did the fact that the pitcher's agent, Casey Close, understood how much the Yankees brand meant to his signature client, Derek Jeter.

Over two hours and change, the Yankees loved what they heard from Tanaka. "He's a remarkable kid," said one team source familiar with the meeting. "He's very confident and focused and determined, but quiet, like Matsui. He wants to be the best on the biggest stage. He's not afraid of New York at all.

"There's nobody like Tanaka in the system, a 25-year-old ace, and there's nobody like that on the free-agent market. So you had to go for it.""

 

[EagerBeaver]

I went out for lunch and all the local radio stations are playing "Empire State of Mind" by Jay Z to salute Tanaka:

http://vimeo.com/11763681

Who can forget this line from that song:

"Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game
Shit, I made the Yankee hat more famous then a Yankee can"

 

[Merlot]

...Yankees scouts saw every game he pitched...

Okay?

How would this be different from every other major signing? Wouldn't it be true that any team investing a king's ransom on a player should know everything possible about his baseball performance capability including possible weaknesses. I know you aren't suggesting the scouts were derelict in doing their jobs when they signed big mega-expensive flashes who fizzled and created such a dearth of talent in the system that the Yanks are stuck chasing the latest alleged phenom.

Even if the guy was great every year like a Verlander what does that guarantee? How many World Series trophies does Detroit have in this century? The Red Sox under Cherington went for role players who are good clubhouse guys who would fight for every inch on the field and won it all despite a poor batting average in the playoffs against strong pitching teams well stacked with excellent support pitchers behind Price, Verlander, Wacha and beat all of those teams. This signing of Tanaka is nothing but ticket promotion until the Yankees get THE RIGHT players on the field.

The 2011 Red Sox, several Yankees teams, and a slew of other big name signings elsewhere have proved the folly of singing flashy stars to big contracts without the overall team character and chemistry to make the team function together at it's best.

The mind boggling part for me is that the guys going to make $22M/year and he's never even thrown a major league baseball pitch.

It's insane. There ought to be some limit on salary in the MLB like the NFL imposed on rookies even if players like Tanaka aren't true rookies. What an insult to all of those proven MLB players making less than these supposed international phenoms are when they haven't either seen or thrown a pitch.

Shit, I made the Yankee hat more famous then a Yankee can"

You like this? The line is a knock down since it's actually pathetic that a singer can make the Yankee brand more famous than a Yankee can.

:crazy:

Merlot

 

[EagerBeaver]

You like this? The line is a knock down since it's actually pathetic that a singer can make the Yankee brand more famous than a Yankee can.Merlot

Did I say I liked it? i said it is a memorable line from the song, as is the one in which Jay Z compared himself to Frank Sinatra. I am not a huge Jay Z fan, but I do like that song as a whole, and I also like Sinatra's song about New York as well, which is sort of the precursor to Jay Z's song.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Hal: Budgetary Considerations Are Secondary To Winning

Hal's speech on Tanaka signing:

http://nypost.com/2014/01/22/hal-steinbrenner-why-yankees-had-to-get-tanaka/

Just got an email from my buddy who has the season tickets and his window is 90-95 wins for the Yankees next year.

 

[EagerBeaver]

ESPN Analysis: Yankees Dramatically Improved

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/yankees/post/_/id/68555/yeah-but-are-the-bombers-better

 

[EagerBeaver]

Tanaka Highlights

Here a Youtube highlight film showing assorted strikeouts by Tanaka in the NPL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpjAi0EjOmg#t=54

 

[Doc Holliday]

I have to tip my hat off to the Yankees for blowing everyone out of the park (from what i've heard on radio today) in bidding for Tanaka's services. If he works out for them, great. If not, fine. They have the money to spend, just like the Dodgers and other teams fortunate to be in a huge baseball market.

But as i've mentionned, they'll have to do something about the infield if they want to make the most out of Tanaka's signing. Other than Johnson and Roberts who are basically duds, Jeter is like 200 years old and has barely played in two years. And the first baseman (Texeira) is old and broken down. Plus no Robinson Cano, who was their best player. Or Granderson, their top power hitter.

No problem at catching, DH and in the outfied. Question marks at the closer role due to the departure of Rivera. Starting pitching should be a strenght. I heard today that Sabathia is in the best shape of his life and has lost 40l lbs. Not sure this is good for a pitcher and how it'll affect his stamina, but i tip my hat off to him for making the effort.

And finally, i'm happy Tanaka signed with an AL East team since i'll get to see him more often as compared to a NL team or one on the west coast.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Doc,

Actually, the statement that the Yankees "blew everyone out of the park" is not true, according to Tanaka's agent Casey Close. The Yankees' offer was the highest, Close confirms, but several other teams made offers that were very close or in the vicinity, according to Close. It being the highest was a factor, but not the decisive factor.

The NY Post is reporting that the Yankees asked Hideki Matsui to speak to Tanaka, and Hideki, who was once the World Series MVP, may have been the MVP of these negotiations as well. The man is simply a winner, and he now lives in the New York area (he never went back to Japan, even though he married a Japanese women), and he also asked the Yankees to sign him to a one day contract so he could retire a Yankee, even though he played for 3 or 4 other organizations. So it is clear that Hideki still wears pinstripes. I bet we see him at a lot of Yankees games next year.

The NY Post is also reporting that Tanaka is/was impressed with the Yankees' tenacity going back to the Matsui video which was apparently sent to him last summer. And by the Yankees' 8 man presentation in LA.

Casey Close, by the ways, is a former minor league player for the Yankees and Derek Jeter's agent since 1993. Tanaka knew this when he chose Close as his agent, fellas.

Regarding the Yankees' infield, it is not like the 2009 team (which had the highest infield WAR in major league history), but it is not the total dogshit it is being made out to be. Frankly, there are still some moves to be made. Nunez, and Gardner, are likely the guys who will go. I think the Yankees will keep Ichiro around for the final year of his contract, as a 5th outfielder, just to help Tanaka be comfortable in his new pinstripes. You realize that Ichiro and Kuroda know where all the great sushi and ramen noodle places in NYC, right? Their help will be crucial as Tanaka seeks guidance in his new city.