On Tanaka- Lighten Up.

I live in the Northeast, which means that, as you probably heard, I got a ton of snow last night. Needless to say I didn't have to go to school today, so I slept in. For a while.

By the time I got up, which was around 10:45, I called my dad, because I wanted to know about how people had been responding to his latest work, which I will probably go into detail on.

I instantly forgot that when he told me "we got Tanaka".

I double-taked. I asked him to repeat himself, clarify, and tell me he wasn't bluffing me. All three times gave me the same answer- Masahiro Tanaka was joining my New York Yankees.

The easiest thing the critics can say is that Tanaka has never pitched in the MLB before, and that may not have been worth the 155 million. And they have been saying that. Many times. They've brought up names like Masahide Kobayashi, Kyuji Fujikawa, Kazuhiro Sazaki and Kei Igawa to buttress their points.

Okay, fine. Those players didn't adjust to MLB systems. They failed. You're right. However, Tanaka is different from those, in that he's made far more news in Japan, been a potential MLB acquisition for far longer, and is being signed for a lot more money. Besides, Tanaka is being hailed as something really big.

Besides, the numbers can speak for themselves. He's 25, pitched a beautiful 24-0 season last year, and still has a lot left in him. It's not like he's 30 like the rest of our recent pickups. It's not like he's unreliable, because he certainly can pitch.

Maybe people are just fearing what happens if he does pitch as well as he did in Japan. Him, Nova, Kuroda, and newly-thin Sabathia could be really nice next year. He could have a spectacular season and go toe-to-toe with Yu Darvish. He could be excellent, and people are just refusing to believe it, because he's a Yankee.

Just wait until he actually pitches an MLB game. Then you can judge him all you want.