The Yankees made a terrific move, I think, in picking up Masahiro Tanaka. Japanese pitchers are known to have a varied arsenal of many pitches, and in this respect, Tanaka is no different. The man seems to have an awesome fastball to go with his brutal splitter. There hasn't been a better splitter on the Yankees since Roger Clemens 'Mr. Splitty'.
Unfortunately, baseball-reference.com doesn't have the kind of stats that we'd all love to see about Tanaka's time in Japan (ERA+, for example), but they do have some of the basic stuff:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/japan/player.cgi?id=tanaka003masHis K/9 has fallen over the course of the last few years, dropping from 8.8/9 to 7.8/9. I don't think the drop is a cause for concern, as his stuff seems to be outright nasty. Perhaps it was just an effort to pitch a little differently, and keep his pitch count a little lower.
Another great stat about Tanka is his BB/9. Seeing a walk rate that low reminds me of what we saw with Moose in his glory days. The Yankees love guys who don't hand out free passes, and I think Tanaka is going to continue in that vein. Keeping guys off the bases, especially in a loaded AL East, is a great way to keep the opposing offense in check. You can't defend against the walk.
It's tough to project what Tanaka will be, and there are a lot of guys out there who caution that he's not necessarily the next Yu Darvish. At the very least, I think we can all laugh and say he's not the next Kei Igawa! I'm hoping for him to prove to be a solid #2 starter, and I think, given what we've seen in spring training, that it's a reasonable hope.
Where do you project Tanaka to end up?
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It seems easier to keep track of paintings this way; a thread in which those who'd like to participate can just post their pictures of their paintings. I've ordered all my paintings according to when I picked them up. I think it's cool to show the progression of collecting.
Those who participate will be able to edit their posts (if you can't, let me know) to add paintings as they pick up more pieces. This will also allow the other thread to consist solely of information about pieces, artists, questions, etc., while keeping all the images separate.
To start us off:
2011Karn's Rescue (Duelist #32 Cover):
Karn, Silver Golem:
2012Covetous Dragon:
Skyship Weatherlight (Alternate Art):
Tahngarth, Talruum Hero (Alternate Art):
Hammer of Bogardan:
2013Voice of Duty:
Squee, Goblin Nabob:
Empyrial Armor:
Crovax the Cursed:
Morphling:
Skyshaper:
I have been blessed to have met many of the people I have. I feel a tremendous sense of gratitude to several members of the community who have helped me in my journey to pick up art that was meaningful to me. RitNecroWin, Greg, QuicksilverVII, KrauserKrauser, Prkchpsndwiches, Windspirit, Tribet, thank you for being the gentlemen that you are. When I come home I feel as though I have traveled back in time to a place where the world, and life, had true magic to them as the infinite possibilities of the future lay before me. Thank you.
I love what I've got, am lucky to have it, and, in some way, I think that they all 'make sense' together. I used the same frame on all of my pieces, which gives it a nice effect of feeling like the pieces are somehow related. If I had used a different frame, I think it would have been too distracting to the eye, taking away some of the appreciation of the pieces.
Many thanks to everyone who helped me make the acquisitions that I have since December of 2011. It has been a wild ride of highs and lows, but I'm glad I got in when I did and I count myself fortunate to have this unique way of appreciating a game that has meant so much to me.
