My Starting Rotation Including The Newly Signed Masahiro Tanaka

I wanted to take a second to construct my starting rotation for the Yankees if I were filling out the lineup card now that Masahiro Tanaka is officially in the fold for the New York Yankees. Many people are likely to debate whether to put him or the more “sure thing” in Hiroki Kuroda behind CC Sabathia as the latter part of our latest one-two punch. I personally think that we need to limit Kuroda’s innings as much as we can this season after two late season fades in a row so I am putting Kuroda as my third starter behind Mr. Tanaka. Also, when on, Ivan Nova has the possibility of being the best #4 starter in all of baseball. While that is not something to write home about necessarily it means the Yankees starting rotation, with this lineup, makes one of our biggest weaknesses into a huge strength.  

Here is my starting five that I would be penciling in on Opening Day if I were Joe Girardi:

CC Sabathia

Masahiro Tanaka

Hiroki Kuroda

Ivan Nova

Michael Pineda/ Vidal Nuno/ Adam Warren / David Phelps / The other half of CC Sabathia that he lost this offseason

On paper that rotation is taking the bombers to the promised land, especially if the Yankees were to sure up the bullpen at the back end and turn every game into a six inning game like they used to with John Wetteland and Mariano Rivera.