Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Excerpt: "Tanaka Signs"

"Not that the Yankees couldn't sign Matt Garza, too, but I just don't see where Tanaka can be expected to be that much better than Garza to warrant what will likely be a significant gap in the two players' contracts. Garza's stat lines aren't as impressive as Tanaka's, but Garza doesn't have to adjust to U.S. baseball -- he's hung mid-3.00 ERAs for years, even while pitching some of the time in the highly-competitive AL East. I can see arguments for either being better than the other, but I can't see arguments for Tanaka being so much better than Garza to justify $50 million in additional contract value. Perhaps I'm being too pessimistic about Tanaka; I see this signing, though, as irrational exuberance over the new thing, rather than a defensible baseball investment."