Tanaka MLB debut - Newsday reporting against Jays for our home opener

[pickoff22]

In case you thought home opener tickets on stubhub were expensive now, wait until this is confirmed!

 

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/masahiro-tanaka-likely-to-make-mlb-debut-april-4-1.7404357

[awsomest]

How ugly would it be if the jays get blown out and shutout by tanaka taking their record to 0-5 0r 1-4?

[Sammy225]

or 4-1

 

Or 3-2 or 2-3 the possibilities are endless........ Well actually that's about it but you get it.

[John_Havok]

Well then we won't have to wait too long for Tanaka's first no-hitter in majors then, amirite?

[G-Snarls]

Tentative pitching matchups:

 

Price vs. Dickey

Cobb vs. Hutchison

Moore vs. Buehrle

Archer vs. Redmond

Tanaka vs. Morrow

 

Honestly, I'll be surprised if we're not 1-4 after the first turn.

 

The offense is gonna have to produce

[TwistedLogic]

The Jays and their perennially s***** schedules, *sigh*.

[RickyWalks]

Welcome to 2014!

 

You loooooove playing the Rays and Yanks right?

 

Especially the Rays in the Tomb!

[Anemic0ffense]

I'm calling 8 strong for Tanaka... BOOK IT

 

8IP, 1ER, 5H, 8K's, 1BB

[Anemic0ffense]

Hurrrrrr...............

 

Come on... You and I both know that they will be hacking often and early, making Tanaka look like a god. They always make "rookie" arms look great.

[Anemic0ffense]

That's the point, first time seeing him regardless of tape, makes guys look good.

 

Fight me bro!

[G-Snarls]

Come on... You and I both know that they will be hacking often and early, making Tanaka look like a god. They always make "rookie" arms look great.

 

I seriously hope (and actually expect) to see more disciplined at bats from the team this year

 

JPA and Boni are gone. Lawrie is maturing. Reyes, Edwin and Bautista rarely go down easy.

[Convo]

Will be neat to watch Tanaka pitch, though might be a miserable experience if he pwns us

[G-Snarls]

Will be neat to watch Tanaka pitch, though might be a miserable experience if he pwns us

 

Amen to that. In front of all that media... If he 7-8 IP and 1-2 hits us, will be extremely embarrassing.

[Jim_Ackers_balls]

This guy is going to be a bust. He's the new Toad of NY.

 

Book it.

[G-Snarls]

This guy is going to be a bust. He's the new Toad of NY.

 

Book it.

 

I'd love for you to be right but...

[Frenchsoup]

This guy is going to be a bust. He's the new Toad of NY.

 

Book it.

 

Yeah I don't see it

[eastcoastjaysfan]

Tentative pitching matchups:

 

Price vs. Dickey

Cobb vs. Hutchison

Moore vs. Buehrle

Archer vs. Redmond

Tanaka vs. Morrow

 

Honestly, I'll be surprised if we're not 1-4 after the first turn.

 

Those are terrifyingly bad matchups.

 

ROFL @ Drew Hutchison being our #2. That's absolutely hilarious.

[gruber92]

Tentative pitching matchups:

 

Price vs. Dickey

Cobb vs. Hutchison

Moore vs. Buehrle

Archer vs. Redmond

Tanaka vs. Morrow

 

Honestly, I'll be surprised if we're not 1-4 after the first turn.

 

I say we split in Tampa.

[Stangstag]

People forget how much pressure Tanaka is going to be under for the Yankees. Everything is sun shine and rainbows right now because nothing counts. But they paid him a lot of money and if he doesn't pitch like a Star. The media and fans will be all over him. Rogers Centre with 50+ thousand people can be hostile environment. Will be a tough place for him to make his debut. You can make mistakes at Rogers Centre. Especially with the roof closed.

 

Morrow can make mistakes too. He probably will give up a couple of homers. Hopefully with nobody on base.

[G-Snarls]

Nothing even suggests to me that Morrow will be ready to take the ball at the opener. I am assuming he will get one of the starts in Montreal. That will be his last test to show hes ready to open up the year. I think both Redmond and Rogers will be in the rotation to start the year. Redmond has 4th spot on lock unless Happ is healthy and has 2 good outings before the season.

 

Could be another ugly April

[Jim_Ackers_balls]

Yeah I don't see it

 

The track record for success of NPB Japanese starters is pretty slim. Kuroda and Iwakuma (with his year and a half) are about it. Clarifying my terms: Darvish is half Iranian and has a much different build, so I don't view him as a Japanese player, even though he is half Japanese.

 

Matsuzaka good for about a year and a half.

 

Nomo was good for a couple of seasons and then pretty mediocre the rest of his career.

 

The rest have been forgettable as starting pitchers.

[Cooler Heads Prevail]

Could be another ugly April

 

Based on what ? We have a fairly healthy team and didn't really lose anybody valuable. We really haven't had this offensive group play many games together yet, the potential is quite good to score runs. Exactly what has happened to this team that suggests they are worse then last year's team ? Last year we started with Lawrie hurt, Reyes hurt weeks later, Dickey and Buehrle totally ineffective. We just have too good an offence to roll over and play dead this season.

 

The team has no depth and hence injuries could be a huge issue later in the season.

[G-Snarls]

Based on what ? We have a fairly healthy team and didn't really lose anybody valuable. We really haven't had this offensive group play many games together yet, the potential is quite good to score runs. Exactly what has happened to this team that suggests they are worse then last year's team ? Last year we started with Lawrie hurt, Reyes hurt weeks later, Dickey and Buehrle totally ineffective. We just have too good an offence to roll over and play dead this season.

 

The team has no depth and hence injuries could be a huge issue later in the season.

 

Based on a weak starting rotation and a tough schedule

 

I like our lineup

[Stangstag]

Based on a weak starting rotation and a tough schedule

 

I like our lineup

 

Yup. Gonna be alot of high-scoring games. I love those types of games though, so even if we lose it should be fun to watch.

[KingKat]

There was a lot of gripping (from myself amongst others) about last year's bench. If I remember correctly both Izturis (3B) and Bonifacio (2B) were in the starting lineup so the bench was as follows:

 

H. Blanco

R. Davis

M. Derosa

 

One thing that was interesting about that bench is that it had three right-handed hitter whereas the current one only has Kratz. Derosa for all the flack he took turned out to be a decent right-handed bat and Davis was always a valuable player in a bench role so It was a pretty solid bench other than Blanco. The biggest problem was that at that point both Izturis and Bonifacio were starting and JPA and Melky turned out to be black holes for the whole season. With JPA gone and Melky bouncing back, this lineup will have less holes but the bench options are for the most part weaker.

[G-Snarls]

There was a lot of gripping (from myself amongst others) about last year's bench. If I remember correctly both Izturis (3B) and Bonifacio (2B) were in the starting lineup so the bench was as follows:

 

H. Blanco

R. Davis

M. Derosa

 

One thing that was interesting about that bench is that it had three right-handed hitter whereas the current one only has Kratz. Derosa for all the flack he took turned out to be a decent right-handed bat and Davis was always a valuable player in a bench role so It was a pretty solid bench other than Blanco. The biggest problem was that at that point both Izturis and Bonifacio were starting and JPA and Melky turned out to be black holes for the whole season. With JPA gone and Melky bouncing back, this lineup will have less holes but the bench options are for the most part weaker.

 

DeRosa and Davis were both terrific (relative to salary and expectations) last year

[JugglingPitches]

AA really screwed the pooch not picking up a pitcher. He needs to pull off a trade before the season starts...and that will never happen.

[Rotator]

Starting a 4 game series in T Bay is not the ideal way for the Jays to start the season. If they could split the games that would be awesome. Hoping Dickey has a dancing Knuckler in their dome and screws up their hitters for a few days after his start. Home opener should be pretty crazy vs Yanks and Tanaka hype and I'm not sure Morrow has to the stones to rise to that type of occasion in his first mlb game since last may.

[G-Snarls]

AA really screwed the pooch not picking up a pitcher. He needs to pull off a trade before the season starts...and that will never happen.

 

The most annoying thing is there was no absolute need to trade. Several guys signed for 1 year FA deals that could have helped this team, allowing us to keep Stroman and Sanchez in the system for the future.

 

f*** off, AA, seriously.

[BallsDeep]

I'm calling 8 strong for Tanaka... BOOK IT

 

8IP, 1ER, 5H, 8K's, 1BB

 

I hope not. How was Darvish his first outing? I say 6 innings.