January 26, 201412 yr An average of eight innings per start. An average of eight innings per start. over three seasons
January 26, 201412 yr Author I heard a discussion on Tanaka today. This signing sounds like a much bigger risk than what I thought it was originally. Tanaka has already thrown 1350 innings in Japan. That is more than all but 8 players in MLB history have thrown at his age. The most recent player to throw that many innings by his age in MLB history was Frank Tanana. He's got a lot of mileage on his arm already. Also, he's used to pitching every 7 days instead of every 5. Finally, although they gave him a lot of credit for having a great split finger pitch he tends to run his fastball up in the zone--that could be a disaster in Yankee Stadium against AL East teams. He might win the next 4 Cy Young Awards but after hearing all that I'm glad the Red Sox don't have $170 million tied up in him over the next 7 years. I agree, he's definitely far from a sure thing. Cubs are so desperate for major league talent (especially arms) that I was cool with their pursuit. Like you though I'm glad they're not the ones assuming all the risk.
January 26, 201412 yr I heard a discussion on Tanaka today. This signing sounds like a much bigger risk than what I thought it was originally. Tanaka has already thrown 1350 innings in Japan. That is more than all but 8 players in MLB history have thrown at his age. The most recent player to throw that many innings by his age in MLB history was Frank Tanana. He's got a lot of mileage on his arm already. Also, he's used to pitching every 7 days instead of every 5. Finally, although they gave him a lot of credit for having a great split finger pitch he tends to run his fastball up in the zone--that could be a disaster in Yankee Stadium against AL East teams. He might win the next 4 Cy Young Awards but after hearing all that I'm glad the Red Sox don't have $170 million tied up in him over the next 7 years. He is a risk without all the factors mentioned, but the Yanks have scouted him since 2007. Besides- this was the best pitching free agent on the market and, while we never know what others actually bid for him, the price is about where I expected it to be. I'm happy the Yankees made a commitment to building the rotation without mortgaging young talent in the pipeline.
January 28, 201412 yr Saw where he pitched 160 pitches in game 6 and then came back and pitched in game 7 What could possibly go wrong? I'm sure there was a day in between games.
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