Yanks get Tanaka 7y/$155M

[Dannyboy]

I question the age of the position players a lot more then the bullpen.

Good point. And if you go down the lineup position by position, I'd bet the O's have a slight advantage right now, and by the end of the year it will prove to be a big advantage.

[joedogg9999]

Must be nice to be a fan of a team that actually wants to win games. This offseason was the Os window and they absolutely blew it beyond words. Not only for this year, but for a very long time. No FAs will want to sign with a cheap ass team nor will we even be able to resign any of our current players and I dont blame any of them. Why would anyone want to be on a team who has absolutely no desire to compete??

[Guest]

The Yankees got .229/.292/.397/.690 out of 1B last year. Their catchers hit .213/.289/.298/.587. At shortstop it was . 228/.286/.312/.598. Does anyone really objectively think Tex, McCann, and Jeter can't do better than that? Yes they'll have a big drop at 2B, but the price they paid for that is a big upgrade in the rotation with Tanaka.

To say the Yankees, on paper, aren't better than 2013 is to base that only on wishful thinking. They did what they always do, reload.

Great Post rep

[lovetoaster]

To say the Yankees, on paper, aren't better than 2013 is to base that only on wishful thinking. They did what they always do, reload.

I was certainly not saying that they are not better on paper this year. I was only questioning how much better they will be when it comes to wins and losses. As bad as last year was for them, they outperformed what their record should have been. As for this year, they made some big signings, but all of them have question marks, a few of them pretty significant. And we can't ignore what they lost and father time adding another year to a few of their already aging key parts.

I agree that they are better on paper than last year, but I am not ready to concede that they will take a huge jump in the win column.

[MrOrange82]

That is an exaggeration. He is currently 8th in AAV behind Kershaw, Verlander, Felix, Greinke, Hamels, Lee and CC. By the time his opt out hits in 4 years he might be 20th.

He's currently 8th in MLB. I said 5-6 best in the league (i.e., by your logic, if he's not in the top dozen or so pitchers in MLB, it's an overpay. That's not a huge exaggeration, if it's an exaggeration at all).

[OrangeJerseys]

We're gonna light this bum up like a stoner's living room.

[Can_of_corn]

He's currently 8th in MLB. I said 5-6 best in the league (i.e., by your logic, if he's not in the top dozen or so pitchers in MLB, it's an overpay. That's not a huge exaggeration, if it's an exaggeration at all).

I said exaggeration and you said "drastic" overpay. Drastic overpay is what the Yanks gave Pavano.

[Number5]

That's the only place where they will hurt but the other moves will hide that.

[SoBo]

Maybe he's the next Darvish. But some of the innings and pitch counts are ridiculous. He threw 160 pitches in a playoff game and then closed the next game. Seriously? The history of young arms with tons of innings and pitch counts is not good.

[foxfield]

So the O's and Yankess had the same record in 2013.

The Yankees add Beltran, Ellsbury, McCann, & Tanaka + BRob, Scott Siezmore + Kelly Johnson + healthy Jeter(???)

The Yankees lose Cano, ARod, V. Wells, Chris Stewart

The Orioles add Ryan Webb, Jemile Weeks, David Lough

The Orioles lose Scott Feldman, Jason Hammel, Jim Johnson, BRob, Danny Valencia

And folks think the O's will finish ahead of the Yanks in the AL East???

We have a last place starting rotation... and that's if they stay healthy and pitch to their career norms. An injur to Tillman, MGon, or Chen and we have a 95 loss starting rotation.

But sure we'd all rather root for the loveable losers than see our owner spend some money on talent.

Cry all you want to about financial disparity. The reality is this. The Baltimore Orioles choose NOT to compete financially on any level with the most

successful franchises in the game. Sure, they were never players in the Tanaka sweepstakes, but dont think they didnt have the financial ability to.

The chose not to. That is why it is likely the Orioles are looking at third place at best, and more likely fourth or fifth.

A couple of points:

1) The Orioles and Yankees finished with identical records last year. Nothing that has occurred during the offseason makes me think that there is not more than a few games in either direction for these two teams this year.

2) The Yankees won their 85 games with a payroll of 3.725 Gazillion dollars. The Orioles, won their 85 games spending about a 100 million dollars.

3) The Yankees lost some significant pieces after 2013. Arod, Cano, Mariano to name a few. The Orioles have lost Johnson, McLouth and Brob.

4) The Yankees have spent nearly a half a billion dollars adding:

Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Tanaka, McCann, Brob

5) The Orioles have added a lot of young potential and not much else.

6) The Yankees get Jeter back at 53 years old and Tex. The guys they signed all have injury histories. Could this team win 100 games? Sure they are the Yankees and anyone can catch lightning in a bottle. But there is no way around it, the Yankees are old.

7)The Orioles are at least one very good starting pitcher from really being a competitor. They could use upgrades in LF or DH or 2nd base, but if the pitching was top shelf this team has enough to compete, in spite of some obvious holes.

I would love it if the Orioles could just decide who they want and just like that, it were so. The Yankees continue to hurt the game by making it harder for good teams to compete. But their nearly $300 million annual team is in NO way going to be 3 times better than the Orioles or any other team in baseball.

So, in terms of what Baltimore does, I don't really care about how much the Yankees spent. I don't really view any of it as being wise. And much of it like Buster Olney says, the Yankees need to spend in order to simply have a buzz of hope for 2014.

I wish the Orioles would make an impact signing. I hope they at least sign Davis, Machado and Bundy, Gausman soon. I don't think anyone, well except the one who counts, thinks that way.

The difference in the two posts above however, is that one looks at a set of data and makes an interpretation on that data. To you Webbrick, I would simply say that if you laid the lineups side by side and went line by line and had the choice of either the Yankee or the Oriole, by your argument, you would rather have a lot more Yankees. I think that is not wise.

To Roy, you are correct, the Orioles are making a choice. And like you it is one I wish they would reconsider. However, I think under the circumstances the team is being run very well and is in good hands. I could certainly see this team disappoint and finish last in the AL East. I could see much better than that though too and would see a better finish as likely with one strong SP addition.

Bottom line, I agree that I would like to have the Yankees resources. But I think we are getting better bang for our buck than the Yankees and at the end of the day, I'd rather be an Oriole.

[OsLuvrInKy]

People the Yanks fielded a AAA team last year and finished with 85 wins.

Gardner Ellsbury Beltran 2014 >>>>> Gardner Suzuki Soriano 2013

McCann 2014 >>>>>>> Cervelli

Jeter 2014 >>>>> Ryan

Tex for a full year

Just for you since for the life of me I cannot understand how you are still an O's fan.

http://forums.nyyfans.com/

[MrOrange82]

I said exaggeration and you said "drastic" overpay. Drastic overpay is what the Yanks gave Pavano.

I point out that the premise on which you based your comment is wrong, and you play semantics with the fact that I omitted an adjective?

Let me rephrase: if Tanaka proves to be something other than one of the 12 best pitchers in MLB, his contract is a drastic overpay.

Though I hesitate to give you something else to argue about, since you (really strangely, IMO) sidestepped the simple fact that you misread my initial comment, the Yankees gave Pavano $39.95 million over four years. That contract looked very good for the Yankees when it was signed, and it only turned out to be terrible because Pavano turned out to be terrible. Tanaka will earn more than Pavano's entire contract just before the end of his second year.

To be clear, you could've simply said "oops," and moved on. My comment wasn't controversial, and your misreading of it was a small mistake.

[Frobby]

So we are just ignoring the fact that they are both another year older, have shown consistent decline even when healthy that that they have both missed significant time the last two years?

We are just ignoring that huh.

I think it's entirely possible the 2014 Yankees will score 100 more runs than last year. You really can't ignore that they missed 1,174 games due to injury last year, of which 1,049 were missed by offensive players. Sure, they will have injuries again this year, and it's possible that key players such as Jeter and Teixeira could miss time this year or simply be ineffective. But overall, they are almost certain to be much healthier as a team.

[Can_of_corn]

I point out that the premise on which you based your comment is wrong, and you play semantics with the fact that I omitted an adjective?

Let me rephrase: if Tanaka proves to be something other than one of the 12 best pitchers in MLB, his contract is a drastic overpay.

Though I hesitate to give you something else to argue about, since you (really strangely, IMO) sidestepped the simple fact that you misread my initial comment, the Yankees gave Pavano $39.95 million over four years. That contract looked very good for the Yankees when it was signed, and it only turned out to be terrible because Pavano turned out to be terrible. Tanaka will earn more than Pavano's entire contract just before the end of his second year.

To be clear, you could've simply said "oops," and moved on. My comment wasn't controversial, and your misreading of it was a small mistake.

I read league as Major League Baseball, other don't and yes that causes misunderstanding at times.

That doesn't change the fact that as long as Tanaka is even a top 30 pitcher (in MLB) this isn't a "drastic" overpay. Most free agent contracts are overpays by their very nature. TV money is quickly accelerating the AAV of pitcher contracts. I would not be surprised to see Price, Scherzer, Lester and maybe Shields sign deals with a higher AAV in the next two offseasons.

Unless he bombs this will probably fall into the type of moderate overpay that teams commit to all the time on the FA market. Obviously if teams want value then they don't shop in the premiere free agent market.

[foxfield]

The Yankees got .229/.292/.397/.690 out of 1B last year. Their catchers hit .213/.289/.298/.587. At shortstop it was . 228/.286/.312/.598. Does anyone really objectively think Tex, McCann, and Jeter can't do better than that? Yes they'll have a big drop at 2B, but the price they paid for that is a big upgrade in the rotation with Tanaka.

To say the Yankees, on paper, aren't better than 2013 is to base that only on wishful thinking. They did what they always do, reload.

Well this is perfectly true. But it is also true to say that on Paper in 2013...they were a hell of a lot better than they actually were. This is the exponential factor of age that increases the risk that the Yankees take. And yes they did in fact reload. But this is not the same types of reload as when they trotted out an honest to goodness all star at each position. Now the reloads frequently are former all stars and while that might be good enough, it is not the same thing. No one will confuse the Yankees as the best team in baseball going into the season.