It Could Be Worse

Just for a second, imagine this team without Tanaka. No stopper. No ace. No pretty, scantily-clad, young Japanese cheerleaders. Oh, wait a minute...

The Yankees are barely keeping their noses above .500 -- almost day to day, they could be breathing through hollow reeds after they go under. Tanaka is 10-1 now, and the team has 33 wins. Actually, in the games he's started, we're 11-2. So a cool one-third of the win total came from the Professor's starts. (He's arguably the only starter we have that gives us a chance of winning with our fearsome two-run offense.)

What would our record look like if we hadn't spent the money to get this "third starter"? Let's be generous and say that instead of 10-1 our starters went 5-6 in those games. That would put us at 28-37, right behind Boston and 9 and a half out. He's only pitched once each against Toronto, Boston and Tampa, the only Eastern Division foes he's faced so far, but we walked out with a W in those games. So technically, it's possible we would be in a slightly worse position vis a vis Toronto and Boston. But let's not quibble.

If you want to figure out just how bad this team really is, take just this one guy out of the equation. He's the only thing keeping us in the stratosphere of mediocrity instead of where we would otherwise be.