I GOT SERVED BY DAVID CONE, SORT OF

I think I pissed off David Cone.  I hope not.

Look, my point about Tanaka has always been that it is not about Tommy John Surgery. What this is about is the Yankees signing a guy that had truly exceptional stuff, an ace pitcher, only to now see a bait and switch and Tanaka giving less than what we thought we were getting when we signed him... for a lot of money.

That's it.

Look, when you have a Yankee fan site, you have the luxury to speak your mind with alot of different thoughts and theories and bounce them off people.  I love doing it. I also like being provocative with my headlines. After all, that's the gig.  You throw a theory out there, and in my case I'm careful not to do it carelessly, in the hopes that we can have a good dialog.  That's what happened last night.

It went like this.  David Cone said this during the game.  He was chatting with Kenny Singleton...

"Everybody wants to push the panic button. No reason for that at all. So much made of Tanaka and 1 mile an hour fastball difference on his average velocity. Some of the comments his made... about changing his style. Way overblown." 

I took exception to "Way overblown." That's because it's not.  I quickly crafted a piece called DAVID CONE'S WRONG ABOUT TANAKA. It is my opinion that people aren't blowing up the Masahiro Tanaka story at all. I think he IS hurt. I think ultimately, he will need Tommy John Surgery.  I think that sucks, but the story was never about Tommy John Surgery at all. It was about getting what we paid for:

"...It would be like if IBM designed a brand new "state of the art" computer and they released it today. You read the specs and you saw the photo and you love it. In fact, you spent alot of money and you bought it and it will be delivered to your house the next day.

Well, tomorrow comes and the IBM warehouse decides, 'You know what, scratch that.  It's nice, but we're bringing back the PC Junior. Let's give that another shot.' No way, bro! I didn't pay for the PC Junior... I paid for the new, hot one.  Give me that one, because that's the one we were sold on... " 

Cone, and I love the guy, looked at one sentence I wrote in the entire piece and blew it up on Twitter.  I wrote:

"...Fix the guy now and we'll have a Tanaka at 100% in 2016.  Right now we don't have Masahiro Tanaka... we have the knock off... Melvin Tanaka... and he's not that good."

Cone tweeted:

@BleednYankeeBlu @mikeyoh21 @suzieprof @dfabulous1 @sweetg35 @foxthechicken @jetdom Only one problem. You assume TJ surgery has no risk.
— David Cone (@dcone36) April 10, 2015

@BleednYankeeBlu @mikeyoh21 Much respect for your thoughts but surgery should be last option. 11 out of 20 last TJ's have been 2nd time.
— David Cone (@dcone36) April 10, 2015

Looking back, I don't even know why I would write "100%", as in recovery from TJ.  The truth is, Tommy John's a pretty serious surgery and while common now, nothing is 100%.  That was careless on my part. That being said, I quickly tweeted back:

@dcone36 @mikeyoh21 always a risk, but we're not getting what we paid for. So the solution is a different pitcher and cross fingers?
— Robert Casey (@BleednYankeeBlu) April 10, 2015

And that's me keeping it real.  Tommy John Surgery was not the essence of my article.  You know what was? Buying a player who had excellent stuff, only to find out that he's not going to present it this season.  Why? Because he's probably hurt and doesn't want to "push it." 

That my friends, is the issue I have with the Tanaka story and that, David, was what I was trying to get accross.  It's not overblown if you're a fan that's paying a lot to bring your family  to Yankee stadium to see a "top" pitcher pitch, but it's not the same pitcher at all. Fans spend alot of money. Fans get angry quickly when they don't get what they're told they're getting.

Finally... I was reminded of something else:

@BleednYankeeBlu I disagree (for now). I need to see a bit more than 4 innings in the first game before I give up on 2015 Tanaka.
— B-Dilly (@Titan4Ever2488) April 10, 2015

So very true. We need to see what happens, and that's a fact. Thanks B-Dilly.

Look, is David Cone right? About Tommy John? 100% correct.  But that's not what I was talking about.  He actually never answered my question about getting what we paid for. Probably because he's a professional and knows that that's between Tanaka and the Yankees.  But I'm right about that point because that's from a fan perspective.

Whatever the case, I'm a Cone guy and always will be. In fact, I really want to interview him here at Bleeding Yankee Blue.  He's a smart guy and one of the best, on the field and now.

Consider it Coney.  If Lorenz can do it, so can you... right?



 
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