HUGE signing!
The Yanks have gone from a really iffy rotation to one which will allow them to compete for a division title. I cannot imagine giving all that money for a guy with a projected ceiling of a #2, but that's what the open market brought.
I'm looking forward to watching him pitch. He's got a filthy splitter and fork ball. Fastball is a bit flat, though, but he has outstanding command.
What cracks me up is all of these so called "experts" who are now saying that the Yankees still aren't a playoff team? Are you kidding me? Are these the same idiots who predicted the Blue Jays were gonna win the World Series last year (even when I knew and predicted that they wouldn't even make the playoffs)?
The Yankees were in contention for playoff spot until the last few games of the regular season. And that's WITH injuries to Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Texieira and Curtis Granderson amongst others. And that's WITH CC Sabathia having the worst year of his career, Ivan Nova having an inconsistent first half, Kuroda stumbling towards the finish line at the end of the season and Phil Hughes with his 5.19 ERA. Now you upgrade your catcher with McCann, upgrade your outfield with Ellsbury and Beltran and upgrade your rotation with Tanaka. Sure, they lost Cano and that's going to hurt them, but I think their 4 signings above help them more than the lose of Cano.
Also, I'm not putting too much pressure on Tanaka this year. I'd expect him to win between 10-15 games with an era in the high 3's/low 4's. Let him get a season under his belt and then judge him accordingly.
