There are the Yankees of Old

The Yankees have retreated to their roots with an over the top offseason signing. Early Wednesday morning, the Yankees signed Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka  for 7years/155 million dollars. The Yankees will pay an additional 20 million to the Rakuten Golden Eagles, Tanaka's previous team to buy out his remaining contract.

What does this mean for the Yankees? They get a pitcher who at 25, is coming off a season in which he went 24-0 with 1.27 ERA in the Japanese League. Everything points to signs that he may be just as good as the Rangers Yu Darvish. Tanaka has the option to opt out of the deal after the 4th year.

Is he really worth 22mil/year? Time will tell. He got a huge contract because the Yankees needed a stud pitcher and needed one three years ago. Darvish only signed a 6yr/56mil deal in 2012 (Although the Rangers paid 50 million to buy out his previous contract) and that seems to be a below market deal thus far. Tanaka's price went up because of Darvish' success and the Yankees' needs.

Tanaka's numbers compared to Darvish's numbers in Japan are strikingly similar. From the same age of 18-24, they both posted sub 2.40 ERA, recorded 90 plus wins, and at a winning percentage north of 70%.

Japanese Leagues Pitching

 TANAKA'S STATISTICS

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	Lev	Aff	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	WHIP	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9	SO/BB
2007	18	Rakuten	JPPL	Fgn		11	7	.611	3.82	28	28		4	1	0	186.1	183	83	79	17	68	2	196	7	1	10	800	1.347	8.8	0.8	3.3	9.5	2.88
2008	19	Rakuten	JPPL	Fgn		9	7	.563	3.49	25	24		5	2	1	172.2	171	71	67	9	54	3	159	2	0	6	726	1.303	8.9	0.5	2.8	8.3	2.94
2009	20	Rakuten	JPPL	Fgn		15	6	.714	2.33	25	24		6	3	1	189.2	170	51	49	13	43	0	171	7	0	3	771	1.123	8.1	0.6	2.0	8.1	3.98
2010	21	Rakuten	JPPL	Fgn		11	6	.647	2.50	20	20	0	8	1	0	155.0	159	47	43	9	32	1	119	5	0	1	643	1.232	9.2	0.5	1.9	6.9	3.72
2011	22	Rakuten	JPPL	Fgn		19	5	.792	1.27	27	27	0	14	6	0	226.1	171	35	32	8	27	0	241	5	0	7	866	0.875	6.8	0.3	1.1	9.6	8.93
2012	23	Rakuten	JPPL	Fgn		10	4	.714	1.87	22	22	0	8	3	0	173.0	160	45	36	4	19	0	169	2	0	4	696	1.035	8.3	0.2	1.0	8.8	8.89
2013	24	Rakuten	JPPL	Fgn		24	0	1.000	1.27	28	27	1	8	2	1	212.0	168	35	30	6	32	0	183	3	0	9	822	0.943	7.1	0.3	1.4	7.8	5.72
7 Seasons						99	35	.739	2.30	175	172	1	53	18	3	1315.0	1182	367	336	66	275	6	1238	31	1	40	5324	1.108	8.1	0.5	1.9	8.5	4.50

Japanese Leagues Pitching

 DARVISH'S STATISTICS

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	Lev	Aff	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	WHIP	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9	SO/BB
2005	18	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		5	5	.500	3.53	14	14	0	2	1	0	94.1	97	37	37	7	48	1	52	3	0	2	410	1.537	9.3	0.7	4.6	5.0	1.08
2006	19	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		12	5	.706	2.89	25	24	0	3	2	0	149.2	128	55	48	12	64	0	115	6	1	5	627	1.283	7.7	0.7	3.8	6.9	1.80
2007	20	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		15	5	.750	1.82	26	26		12	3	0	207.2	123	48	42	9	49	1	210	13	0	4	790	0.828	5.3	0.4	2.1	9.1	4.29
2008	21	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		16	4	.800	1.88	25	24		10	2	0	200.2	136	44	42	11	44	0	208	9	1	4	764	0.897	6.1	0.5	2.0	9.3	4.73
2009	22	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		15	5	.750	1.73	23	23		8	2	0	182.0	118	36	35	9	45	0	167	6	0	5	701	0.896	5.8	0.4	2.2	8.3	3.71
2010	23	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		12	8	.600	1.78	26	25	0	10	2	0	202.0	158	48	40	5	47	0	222	7	0	6	805	1.015	7.0	0.2	2.1	9.9	4.72
2011	24	Nippon Ham	JPPL	Fgn		18	6	.750	1.44	28	28	0	10	6	0	232.0	156	42	37	5	36	0	276	6	1	10	885	0.828	6.1	0.2	1.4	10.7	7.67
7 Seasons						93	38	.710	1.99	167	164	0	55	18	0	1268.1	916	310	281	58	333	2	1250	50	3	36	4982	0.985	6.5	0.4	2.4	8.9	3.75

The Yankees hope that resident Japanese veteran pitcher, Hiroki Kuroda will help ease Tanaka into the MLB. Tanaka will not have much of a grace period to figure out the transition. The Yankees need him to be a great #2 pitcher. Yankee fans are not known for their patience and with a 22 million dollar salary, I cannot blame them.

Here is the Yankees projected lineup/statistics as of Mid-January. I do not see too many changes or surprises out of the farm system.

Lineup	Player	POS	Team	AB	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	FVal
1	Jacoby Ellsbury	OF	NYY	567	84	13	59	38	0.282	0.338	0.427	0.765	$22
2	Derek Jeter	SS	NYY	378	54	6	38	6	0.286	0.345	0.381	0.726	$-6
3	Carlos Beltran	OF	NYY	472	70	20	76	4	0.280	0.342	0.470	0.813	$12
4	Mark Teixeira	1B	NYY	439	66	24	73	3	0.244	0.339	0.462	0.801	$6
5	Brian McCann	Catcher	NYY	485	62	23	76	2	0.258	0.338	0.441	0.779	$12
6	Alfonso Soriano	DH	NYY	443	56	22	69	9	0.246	0.298	0.454	0.752	$2
7	Kelly Johnson	3B	NYY	370	47	13	46	8	0.230	0.308	0.386	0.695	$-10
8	Brian Roberts	2B	NYY	249	30	6	28	4	0.253	0.319	0.382	0.700	$-23
9	Brett Gardner	OF	NYY	517	71	8	56	27	0.265	0.345	0.391	0.736	$6

Possible Starters

Starter	Player	POS	Team	IP	W	L	ERA	WHIP	K	BB	FVal
1	CC Sabathia	SP	NYY	196	12	9	3.81	1.28	168	56	$7
2	Masahiro Tanaka	SP	NYY	200	13	10	3.56	1.16	157	40	$14
3	Hiroki Kuroda	SP	NYY	186	12	9	3.77	1.22	139	44	$7
4	Ivan Nova	SP	NYY	192	11	10	3.94	1.34	154	63	$2
5	David Phelps	SP	NYY	146	8	8	4.25	1.38	129	58	$-3
6	Michael Pineda	SP	NYY	87	6	4	4.14	1.29	77	31	$-3
7	Adam Warren	SP	NYY	107	6	6	4.46	1.50	79	43	$-9

Closers/Setup

Player	POS	Team	IP	W	L	Saves	ERA	WHIP	K	BB	FVal
David Robertson	RP	NYY	62	4	3	28	2.76	1.15	73	21	$9
Shawn Kelley	RP	NYY	62	3	3	3	3.63	1.31	70	25	$-3
Matt Thornton	RP	NYY	60	3	3	1	3.45	1.33	53	19	$-4

The starting lineup looks balanced with medium power and two speedsters at each end. Brian McCann, 29 is the only starter under 30.  To be fair, McCann's knees resemble more of a retired NFL linebacker than a 17mil/year catcher. The lineup is tied together loosely with show strings. Utility Bench Player, Brendan Ryan will give them a great defensive boost when Jeter needs to sit.

The Yankees have a better team than last year, but their division only got better. Tampa Bay's young  pitching staff will have another year under their belt and expect them to deal former Cy Young pitcher David Price if the right offer comes across their desk. The defending champion Red Sox still come back with most of their key parts and will get a full season for emerging phenom, Xander Bogaerts. Jackie Bradley Jr. will have his chance to be an everyday center fielder. The Yankees did all they could do this offseason. Will it be enough? We will have to wait and see because I would be lying if I told you last spring I saw the Red Sox winning the championship. Oh, his best pitch you ask? Splitter that falls off faster than Justin Bieber's pants.