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Thursday, April 17, 2014

Tanaka and Pineda are about to become THE NEXT BIG THING

It's already happened to me: A start by CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova or Hiroki Kuroda has become a yawner. What's the point? We know what will happen. CC will give up three, maybe four runs, and he will keep us in games, until he hits an iceberg in August, and needs a rest. Nova will throw well one day, then get bombed. Kuroda will be lights out, until Joe leaves him in too long, and come August, he too might be in tatters. Yep. We've seen this movie. The boat sinks.

Ah, but then there are the wild cards, Tanaka and Pineda. What should we expect from them? Well, I dunno. Neither do you. Neither does Girardi, nor any of Gammonites, nor Tanaka and Pineda. Nobody knows. They shutout a tomato can yesterday, but they've looked incredible thus far. Who knows?

For a rare moment, the Yankees actually have young players whose ceilings are not carved into concrete blocks. It's a strange feeling, the one we used to get with rookies - remember rookies? It's the charge you felt when Bernie Williams' batting average kept rising, and one day they decided to move him from ninth in the batting order to third. It's the sensation you had when Robbie Cano started hitting for power AND average. The Yankees haven't felt this excited about a player since Robbie's first ribbie. And holy crap, now we have two!

Listen: The Master is right. You cannot predict baseball. But you sure can predict the New York City hype machinery, and you can hear the engine starting to rev.

The baseball world is about to explode with hype over the Yankees' two 25-year-old starters. Imagine TWO Matt Harveys at once. Think in terms of insanely exaggerated comparisons: Koufax and Drysdale quickly come to mind. Sports Illustrated must be pondering its covers. The tabs surely are honing their headlines. ESPN is lining up its Sunday nights. Obama and Putin are watching their schedules.

Dear God... The Yankees have TWO Ubaldos, TWO Harveys, TWO Dice Ks, TWO Darvishes - and nobody knows how good either could be. Fasten your seat belts, everybody. It's about to get really noisy, at least two out of every five days.

3 comments:

KD said...

I am hoping for a Dominican reincarnation of Jim Palmer. So far, so good!

Gamliel said...

One Next Big Thing has a shoulder that could go POP at any moment. The other Next Big Thing has seven years of mileage on his arm and has never pitched every fifth day until this season--a season that is 22 games longer than the ones he is used to, with far more extensive travel.

I would advise against popping the corks until you check their numbers at the All-Star break.

Buhner's Ghost said...

Which one is Drysdale and which one is Jewish?