Masahiro Tanaka will make his regular season debut for the New York Yankees tonight in Toronto. All eyes will be on the Japanese import, who inked a seven-year, $155 million contract. Even though Yankees general manager Brian Cashman tried to tamp down expectations on him by saying the front office expected him to be a "a really solid, consistent No. 3 starter," everyone with functioning brain cells knows that isn't the case.
With that said, here are the Top 5 things to know about the Bronx's new Masa-HERO before he steps up to the rubber.
He is NOT Yu Darvish
This video is pretty much where the similarites end.
Tanaka and Darvish are just two years apart in age, and both ripped up the same competition in Japan. Darvish came to MLB first, and quickly became one of the best starters in the sport-ramping up the cost and expectations for Tanaka who put up better stats in his homeland.
For Nippon Darvish was 93-38, with a 1.99 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and 1,250 strikeouts over seven seasons. Tanaka pitched for Rakuten for seven seasons also, going 99-35, with a 2.30 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 1,238 strikeouts. Basically, they're the same statistically.
However they are not the same stylistically. Tanaka is built like a truck, while Darvish is tall and lanky. Darvish also has a wider arsenal of pitches, while Tanaka takes a more straight-forward approach, relying primarily on his split-finger fastball to generate strikeouts.
Speaking of splitters, Tanaka's might already be the best in baseball
Here is a National League scout's take on Tanaka's signature pitch: "For me, that was always his calling card, the splitter. The slider is just filthy, but when you have a top-of-the-scale split, that's borderline unhittable as long as you throw it close to the plate."
He flashed it in spring training as well, and made a few hitters look downright silly. Phillies color analyst Larry Andersen saw it and said, "(Tanaka's) not afraid to use (the splitter). I think it's gonna be a great pitch for him."
He also has a cutter and slider, but mostly expect Tanaka to pump fastballs and try to get ground ball outs as well as Ks.
Tanaka isn't the only famous person in his family-his wife is well-known Japanese singer
Tanaka was married in 2012 in Hawaii to Japanese recording artist Mai Satoda, who broke onto the Japanese music scene as a member of a girl group called Country Musume, which is part of a collective called the Hello! Project. Tanaka and his wife clearly live rockstar lifestyles-he dropped $195,000 on a private jet for him, his wife, his dog, and three other people.
The Japan Airlines Dreamliner can seat 200 passengers.
Tanaka made Olympics history, and was part of two World Baseball Classic titles for Japan
In 2008, he was the only player from Rakuten to be selected to the Beijing Olympics national team, and became the youngest Japanese player in the history of Olympic baseball to take the field. He also pitched in the 2009 WBC as a reliever, striking out American captain David Wright at a crucial point of the semifinals. In 2013 he struck out six Cubans in just two innings.
Tanaka was the first major international free agent inked under the new posting fee system
Unlike previous imports from Japan like Darvish and Hideki Matsui, the bidding war for Tanaka was very different. In Tanaka's case, teams could only bid a maximum of $20 million for the rights to negotiate with him. That $20 million would go to Rakuten if Tanaka agreed to terms. In the past, it was a free bidding system in which prices to the team would skyrocket-Texas bid a whopping $51.7 million to just talk with Darvish.
The exorbitant fee affected his contract however. Darvish signed a six-year, $60 million contract that pales in comparison to Tanaka's pact.
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