"I FEEL LIKE I BOUGHT THE WHOLE ALBUM AFTER HEARING 1 SONG!"

I had a great discussion with one of my writers today.  Let me rephrase... I spoke to pretty much all of my writers today in regards to the Masahiro Tanaka signing all were fun chats, but 1 conversation with Mike O'Hara needed to be published because the conversation was rich with nuggets, humor, concern and joy... all wrapped up into 1.  Truth be told, it's what Yankeeland is feeling right now and so, I wanted to share it.  Don't worry, Mike knows.  Check this out:

Mike O'Hara: "Tanaka was needed, but I hope he is the real deal and not in the Nomo, Irabu, Dice K, Igawa mold... One good year and then everybody times and tees off. 

And why not just call it a 4 year deal? The opt-out is almost always taken. We may have just begun paying for this kid. Fingers crossed. Still need some pen help. Lots of money and lots of questions."

Casey: "That's what my buddy Mike said. He said "I hope he doesn't suck." He needs to be great for 4 years and we need to win so he doesn't want to leave. The Yankees are banking on that.

Mike O'Hara: "Almost a billion and the only guy I am 100% sold on is Brian McCann. He is a bulldog, good defender, leader and the pop will meet the porch.  

The rest are "hope so" guys. Ellsbury has all the tools but aside from 2011, he isn't worth the dollars we're paying. Guess we'll see. Wish we could develop core again. The buying in the 80's didn't work on it's own. The mix that Stick created was the key.  George's dollars Michael's know how."

Casey: "Gotta stay positive now.  The Yankees did what the fans wanted. Now we have to live with it."

Mike O'Hara: "I am very happy that they were aggressive in trying to fix the problems. That is a positive. I just hope they aren't buying carelessly. Should be a fun season all the same."

Casey: "They are buying carelessly, you know that. It's George Part 2."

Mike O'Hara: "Haha. I don't see Hal & Hank as anywhere near George the Great, but I'll say this, they are trying."

Casey: "No. But my point is, they realized they blew it last year and they've now overcompensated. Who knows... Fingers crossed." 

Mike O'Hara: "On Tanaka, I just tweeted my friend "I feel like I bought the whole album after hearing 1 good song... let that record spin and hope it's a classic."

Now... that's honesty and real in the mind of a Yankee fan right now. Mixed emotions.  Look, we signed some great players this off season and yes, the word on the street is Tanaka is "lights out", so the bottom line was we needed to sign him.  I didn't want to go through the Yu Darvish "damn we missed out" crap. We needed to roll the dice on Tanaka, we needed to find out... that's the bottom line.

The Yankees made some very good moves this off season.  They also spent a lot of money.  It was money they had to spend after a disappointing 2013.  2014 is the year ladies and gentlemen. Yankee brass will not be humiliated again.  It was bad enough we didn't make the playoffs in 2013... but when the Red Sox won it all, it was clear, we blew it and they knew that. 

It can't happen again, hence, welcome to the Bronx Masahiro Tanaka.

Thanks for the chat today Mike and thanks for being a great help on Bleeding Yankee Blue... we're happy to have you.

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