TANAKA'S READY TO PITCH AND WE KNOW WHEN...

Good little piece by Brendan Kuty of NJ.com who writes that Masahiro Tanaka will be pitching in his first Spring training game on Saturday this week. That's pretty exciting.

According to Kuty, " Tanaka will make his first spring training appearance against the Phillies at George M. Steinbrenner Field on Saturday, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda will also make their first showings of the spring.

Tanaka won't start — that duty will go to Sabathia, who hopes to rebound from a disastrous 2013 campaign. Each pitcher will throw around two innings and 35 pitches, Girardi said."

Not to get off topic, but let me state for the record that the word "disastrous" is a bit over the top when describing Sabathia in 2013. 2-18 is disastrous. Sabathia was 14-13 with a 4.78 ERA.  Disappointing maybe... not disastrous.

Anyway, it will be exciting to see Tanaka this weekend.

 Adam Berry of MLB.com says: " In the split-second between Masahiro Tanaka's left foot landing on the mound and Francisco Cervelli's glove popping, you could hear the rapid clicking and shuttering of cameras. It was just an early-morning simulated game taking place on a back field at the Yankees' Spring Training complex, but Tanaka once again proved that he will draw a crowd like few others can...

'I just feel that I'm pretty much ready to throw in a game,' Tanaka said through an interpreter. 'All I can say is I was throwing naturally out there.'" 

Excited yet? I know... me too.

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