IS TANAKA A CHICAGO OR NEW YORK GUY?

This is what we're doing now... weighing who has real offers for Masahiro Tanaka and who is just thinking about the ace.

The latest, and this has been floating out there for the past 24 hours is that the Chicago Cubs are very serious about Tanaka and the offer they've given Tanaka is a "real offer".

Wake up tweeters! Cubs made Tanaka a real offer to be there ace and grow with their other talented young players.
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) January 18, 2014

As opposed to what, the Dodgers and Yankees NOT making a "real offer"? I found that silly.  Levine also noted that:

According to numerous sources living near and being a part of the American Japanese community ,is a key element for Tanaka and his wife.
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) January 18, 2014

OK well, luckily for us, New York City is a melting pot... we have Japanese people who live there... so we got that going for us.

Don't forget, a few days ago we posted a piece and featured Ryan Morrison of Inside the Zona who  had a unique perspective on the whole Tanaka / Yankees / Cubs stuff. Here it is again:

The Cubs:

“Consider the situation of the Chicago Cubs.  After three seasons with payrolls above $134M in 2009-2011, the Cubs committed to a rebuilding cycle, settling back down under $110M for the last two seasons.  They have money to spend, but no reason to spend it on the 2014 version of the team.  2015 may spell the beginning of their turnaround, but it’s only 2016 and beyond that their good young players may be contributing to the major league club in a meaningful way.  Now consider that of those good young players, almost all are position player prospects.
 
Add to that Theo Epstein’s comment from early November: ‘We wish there was a free agent market for young players.’”

The Yankees:

“… the Yankees’ need for Tanaka might be the greatest in the land.  New York’s rotation issues are profound.  Beyond a declining CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda, who agreed to give the Yankees one more year, they have the somewhat underrated Ivan Nova, slot filler David Phelps, and maybe Michael Pineda, who was great before shoulder surgery, but who is returning from… shoulder surgery.  In the minors, most possibilities are either recovering from injury or recently returned from one.
 
Also — they’re the Yankees.  Yes, they’ve been flirting with the recently-raised luxury tax threshold, but unless the luxury tax threshold is completely turning them off from spending money in general, Tanaka might still fit them.  Assuming that the total price for Tanaka will be as much as teams can fathom paying him (and that total years won’t be a big factor), the posting fee is part of Tanaka’s price — and so Tanaka’s salary may be a bit lower than it might have been if he were a true free agent. “ 

Read  TANAKA TOUR 2014 for our full piece. For me personally... I'd like to think that Tanaka would come to a team with a chance to win. I don't see the Cubs as that team... not this upcoming season at least. But "experts" suggest maybe him being the only ace on a club like the Cubs is a good thing, as opposed to coming to the Yankees where superstar reign already.

Who really knows... but I'll tell you one thing... the Tanaka US Tour is getting pretty exciting.

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