Takeaways From Opening Day for Boston and New York

So Opening Day is in the books, with Boston getting a win in Philly while the Yanks fell to the Blue Jays. So did we learn anything at all from the games?

1. Dustin Pedroia is healthy.
Pedroia is always solid in the field, to the point that his defensive excellence can mitigate poor performance at the plate. But over the past couple of years his thumb has given him no small amount of grief when it comes to hitting. Going into this year he said he was 100% and after going 3-5 with two home runs, I am inclined to believe him.

Pedroia was turning on the ball and generating power in a way he simply wasn't able to in the past two years. If he can keep this up, Boston's lineup is even more dangerous when firing on all cylinders.

2. Masahiro Tanaka needs Tommy John surgery.
If you spend $20M for the right to sign a pitcher and give him $155M over seven years, shouldn't you do everything possible to protect that investment?

Apparently, not if you are the New York Yankees. They let Tanaka basically talk them into letting him finish 2014 and go the off-season without getting TJ surgery for his elbow. The wisdom of that move was on display Monday, when Tanaka had no fastball to speak of and could only go four innings.

Tanaka is not a finesse pitcher. But with a fastball that is barely touching 90 because of his elbow, that is who Tanaka is trying to be right now. And it isn't going to work. Sooner or later, the Yankees will have to acknowledge this and shut Tanaka down. Either way, the Yankee rotation is even more uncertain today than it was before Monday.

3. About that Boston lineup...
With the power display on Monday, it was easy to ignore/miss the fact that Ortiz and Sandoval went a combined 0-9 with six strikeouts. Or that Boston generated all their runs with home runs as opposed to hits.

I know it's one game and this smacks of the kind of despair and foolishness that sports radio is famous for throwing out over the airwaves. But Boston had massive problems with run production in 2014. No team can count on home runs to create all their scoring game after game. And Boston cannot afford to have both Ortiz and Sandoval go into massive slumps to start the year.

Rather than call this a problem, let's just say it's something to keep an eye on and we can revisit it a week or two down the road.

Starting to Roll

On May 4, after losing a 3-2, 10 inning heartbreaker to the A's, the Red Sox were 15-17. They sat two games out of first in third place. They had two games at home against the Reds before going to Texas for three games, a place they tend to struggle.

Today they are 19-18. They are still in third place and still two games out of first. But the vibe around this team is quite different than it was only a week or two ago.

Boston has four of their last five games and six of their last eight. Two weeks ago you'd have seen Mike Napoli leading most every major batting category. Now we are seeing Big Papi and Pedroia starting to show up as leaders as well. Their on-base percentage as a team has shot up to third in the majors. Their team OPS is a more modest 12th, but that is far ahead of where they were in April.

Their pitching has remained relatively solid. The staff has 25 quality starts, fourth in the majors. Their team ERA is 14th in the majors but fifth in the AL. Boston's save percentage of 79% is best in the AL. But they have seen a dip in their staff WHIP and their staff OPS is starting to rise.

You could argue Lackey is Boston's best starter.

Now, you combine those two things and you get a team that can hold their ground but that's about it. I think the critical element to Boston's improvement has been in the field.

Standing Still

Not much changed for Boston after their four games at Fenway with the Orioles. They started out two games back from first and ended it 2.5 games back. They are in last but at this stage that (dis)honor means little. It's all about the GB right now and the only two teams in the AL that look like they could start playing golf in June are the Mariners and Astros.

That said, it is frustrating because the Sox could be at 10-10 right now if not for one bad inning from Clay Buchholz. The Sox played an all-around better game on Patriots Day but when your starting pitcher gives up six runs in one inning...you are making your team climb a tall hill from that point on. The fact that Boston almost won yesterday's game says something about how, finally, their hitting seems to be coming around a little bit.

The Sox outhit Baltimore in two of the four games, something they have had trouble doing this year. They hit .243 with runners in scoring position over the four games, much better than the .185 they averaged against Chicago. They left 30 men on base over the series, an average of 7.5 a game, compared with 9.3 a game with Chicago. They have gone from 24th in team OPS to 21st, 20th in runs (from 22nd) and 23rd in extra-base hits (from 26th). That still isn't great. Heck, it isn't even good. But it is an improvement and that is what has to happen for Boston to start moving up the standings. Every journey starts with a single step, right?

And let's hear it for Brock Holt, who actually stabilized third base and brought a functioning bat into the lineup. His OPS right now is 1.009. Yes, that is only over four games. But when you consider Ryan Roberts had just a .333 OPS over eight games (and .200 after four), I say we give a round of applause to Brock and encourage him to keep his bat moving.

Hallelujah, someone who can play third and hit

So for all that, it was a letdown to then see the pitching slip. We had Buchholz implode the other day. Someone on Boston.com said that Buchholz isn't an ace, but a wild card. And I think that is the perfect description for him. You never quite know what Clay is going to give you when he takes the mound. He has all the talent in the world. But some days you get a crap-bomb like yesterday and others you get a work of art like that game in April 2013 against the Rays when Clay went eight innings and struck out 11. The inconsistency is maddening.

Tanaka The Real Deal? Maybe

I sat in the upper deck at Yankee Stadium on July 10, 1997, as George Steinbrenner unveiled his newest, shiniest imported phenom.

Hideki Irabu was set to make his Major League debut in front of an electrified crowd exceeding 50,000. The Japanese Nolan Ryan proceeded to to induce a grounder before striking out the next two in the first inning. He struck out two more in the second and with each succeeding K, the crowd grew louder and more intense.

The Yankees would go on to be the Detroit Tigers that night 10-3 as Irabu allowed two runs on five hits and four walks over 6-2/3 innings.

He also struck out nine and anyone who was there that night would have sworn that the Yankees had landed the real deal, a bonafide superstar ready to take the Major Leagues by storm and lead the Bombers to another World Series title.

The only thing is that's not quite how the story played out.

Irabu turned out to be nothing more than a mediocre pitcher, going 34-35 over six seasons.

And the lesson learned from that experience was to never judge a player based on a small sample size. Any player can have a great game. Heck, even Kei Igawa won a couple of games.

Yet here we are, 17 years later over-analyzing everything Masahiro Tanaka does, drooling over every strike thrown.

Masahiro Tanaka is looking good, but it's only spring training.

Might They Call Him Masahiro "Bleeping" Tanaka One Day?

I strongly detest the introductory press conference.

Wait. That doesn't work. "Strongly detest" isn't adequate enough.

I bleeping hate the introductory press conference.

There, that's better. Seriously, is there anything more mind-numbing than watching a player who made his mark somewhere else throw out a bunch of cliches and platitudes to reporters hungry for a story in the dead of winter.

It's not as if we don't already know all the answers. "I'm honored to play for this historic franchise and in this amazing city." I couldn't pass up the opportunity to play for the Yankees." "Wearing the Pinstripes is a special feeling." "I want the opportunity to win year in and year out."

We all know what they mean is, "the Yankees were willing to pay me the most."

But Tuesday's Mashiro Tanaka presser was a little different.

Associated Press

Why Boston Didn't Need Tanaka

So the big new yesterday was the Yankees signing Masahiro Tanaka for $155M over seven years, with an opt-out after the fourth year. It's ridiculous money, the kind of deal that puts paid to any talk coming out of New York about fiscal responsibility and staying under the tax cap.

It's also the kind of deal that the Yankees were forced to make. And one the Sox didn't have to make, which is why they never got past the early stages of pursuing Tanaka.

As Aviv pointed out yesterday, the Yankees' "barren farm system" forced their hand on this deal. With too many holes and question marks in their rotation, and an institutional inability to actually take a year (or two) to rebuild, what else were they going to do? The Yankees are locked into a kind of death spiral, where their poor farm system forces them to spend big money on free agents, which (like Ellsbury) cost them draft picks or takes up money they could use in other areas. Which then limits their farm system and repeat forever.

Another meeting of the Yankees' financial department gets underway

To that point, MLB is about to release their list of the top 100 prospects in baseball. They have been releasing top 10 lists at each position over the past week or so to get people ready for it. Of course, at Sox vs. Stripes we only care about the Red Sox and Yankees on the list because the other 28 teams are an afterthought.

But in truth, this is really about the Boston prospects. As you'll see, these lists are yet another example of what building a farm system provides a team, as opposed to throwing away draft picks and spending ridiculous amounts of money on free agents.

So by position, here are the Boston and/or New York prospects with their rank at that position

RHP: None

LHP: Boston - Henry Owens (2), Trey Ball (9) | New York - None

C: Boston - Blake Swihart (5) | New York - Gary Sanchez (4)

1B: Boston - Travis Shaw (8) | New York - Greg Bird (7)

2B: Boston - Mookie Betts (3) | New York - None

3B: Boston - Garin Cecchini (6) | New York - None

SS: Boston - Xander Bogaerts (1) | New York - None

OF: Boston - Jackie Bradley, Jr. (6) | New York - None

You can see the difference between the two teams quite clearly. Boston has a top 10 prospect in seven of the eight positions. New York has them in only two. And those two position are among the "weakest" when it comes to quality and depth prospect-wise across the league.

Tanaka: High Reward, High Risk, Right Move

The New York Yankees really didn't have a choice. This was a move they had to make, even if meant blowing away Hal Steinbrenner's $189 million payroll goal.

The Bombers landed the last big free agent on the market, signing Japanese phenom pitcher Masahiro Tanaka to a whopping seven-year, $155 million contract that includes an opt out after year four. The Yanks also will pay the Rakuten Eagles a $20 million posting fee.

Tanaka received the fifth largest contract ever given to a pitcher, trailing Clayton Kershaw ($215 million), Justin Verlander ($180 million), Felix Hernandex ($175 million) and CC Sabathia ($161 million). Not bad for a guy who hasn't even thrown a pitch in a major league game.

The truth is that given their barren farm system and the holes in the starting rotation, the Yankees probably needed to sign Tanaka more than any other team. But it's a signing that carries a ton of risk and still doesn't make the Yankees a favorite to win the AL East, much less the World Series.

The Irony Of Tanaka's Posting

The bids are in and by the end of the week we'll know where the most coveted pitcher on the free agent market will play next season.

Nikkan Sports reported on Saturday that the New York Yankees are among five teams to have made formal offers to Masahiro Tanaka. The Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Cubs and White Sox also made pitches.

All the offers are reported to be for six-years and at least $100 million, with the Diamondbacks coming in at $120 million and the Yankees and Dodgers said to be in that neighborhood.

And without having thrown a single pitch in the Major Leagues, Tanaka will become one of the highest paid pitchers in the game with the ability to decide where he wants to play.

That's everything the MLBPA could have ever wanted, and probably not exactly what Major League baseball envisioned when it reworked the posting system with Japanese leagues in December.

Yankees Have Become MLB's Version Of Florida

Jerry Seinfeld once said that "Florida is where old people go to die." (No, Mom, I'm not saying you're old. Dad, maybe, but not you.)

But if that's the case, does that mean the Yankees are where old baseball players go to squeeze out the last days of their playing careers?

Have the New York Yankees become the Florida of Major League baseball?

With Friday's signing Carlos Beltran, who will turn 37 in April, and the re-signing of 38-year-old Hiroki Kuroda, it sure is starting to look that way.