Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Quick Hit: Tanaka "Officially" The Fourth Starter


Joe Girardi has basically lineup up his rotation for Opening Day announcing that CC Sabathia would start this Thursday, lining him up for Opening Day (and has already been announced as the Opening Day starter). Hiroki Kuroda has been named Friday's starter, which lines him up perfectly for Game Two, and followed by Ivan Nova Saturday for a Game Three start. This essentially makes Masahiro Tanaka the fourth starter, unless of course Michael Pineda or David Phelps is the fourth starter than Tanaka becomes the fifth but I am being realistic here, and I am not quite sure I agree with it.

Obviously the Opening Day rotation order means absolutely nothing and will not be the same in May or June that it will be in April, I get that. I also get that you want to get Tanaka's feet wet slowly but still, the fourth starter? Who pays a guy $155 million plus $20 million just to talk to the guy to pitch the fourth game of the season?

I am not entirely upset about it but I can't say I understand it either. I don't necessarily see an issue with having Tanaka and Kuroda pitching back to back, but maybe it's just me. Tanaka will be the best fourth starter in all of baseball though, I will tell you that. Write it down.

6 comments:

  1. I'd switch Tanaka and Kuroda. Everybody is making a big deal about Tanaka ' s workload over the past years. I think less innings means more to Kuroda than it does to Tanaka.

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  2. That's actually a great idea Jeff. Wondering why I didn't think of it first...

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  3. I'm happy with the Yankees opening week rotation because in my opinion, CC and Nova have been way better than Tanaka this spring. That obviously won't be the case come May, but for now I feel like this order just gives the team the best chance to win

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    1. Would it not be better to get his Major League feet wet against an offensively anemic team, the Astros, and not a power hitting AL East team like the Blue Jays?

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    2. With the five starters we have, we can nitpick this to death. It really doesn't matter where we pitch these guys, they all have shutdown stuff. That being said, they all have question marks as well. But the fact is, we're throwing Pineda out there as a #5 starter! How many teams would love to have that luxury!

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    3. He's a number 2 or number 1 on most teams when healthy

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)