It would be awesome if they did somehow land him. He's only 25, so a six year deal takes him straight through his prime. Plus he's on the backside of the injury apex. However, his arm has been abused, so maybe his value will depend on the credence given to pitch counts and their relationship to injury.

From ESPN Insider

9th in all of baseball


9. Kansas City Royals

Their window to win is right now, and GM Dayton Moore augmented his lineup in two troublesome spots. He paid top-of-the-market dollars to sign Omar Infante to fill in at second base and traded for Norichika Aoki to be the leadoff man, which allows Ned Yost to move Alex Gordon to somewhere in the middle of the lineup.

This could be a dynamic lineup, with power and speed and depth, but so much of the Royals’ season will depend on the development of their best young players -- like the 24-year-old Eric Hosmer, who had a very good second half in 2013, and third baseman Mike Moustakas, who enters an extremely important year in his career after posting an OPS of .651 last season. Salvador Perez has a unique ability to square up a ball, but needs patience; last year, he had 41 extra-base hits, 21 walks and just 63 strikeouts in 526 plate appearances. This is a big year too for Billy Butler, one of baseball’s last full-time DHs; he hit into a league-high 28 double plays last season, while his slugging percentage dropped about 100 points.

My guess is that the improved depth of the lineup helps all of them, and the Royals become a strong offensive team. But that’s hardly a sure thing.

Here's another one.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0VJWW7qK-aI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

More fun to watch. Thanks.

But 7th in the AL. He's also got the Tigers and Indians ranked ahead of the Royals.

Alnorth and duncan - weigh in: Is tanaka worth the risk?

Yes, but he's going to get overpaid to the point that teams like KC will not stand a chance.

I just watched a youtube clip... While his fastball does have some run to it, if he tries to put it in the upper part of the zone over here, I suspect he will get shelled. But his splitter is bananas. He also appears to be able to throw a nice slider.

For KC?

I don't think so. The guy is going to get paid. 6-7 years, $100+ million, plus an additional $20 million to his NBL team. The Angels, Yankees are both heavily involved in bidding, apparently.

He might very well be worth that sort of contract. But KC can't afford to take that sort of albatross risk.

Tanaka is just average height (Likely 6-0 or 6-1) and isn't a huge velocity guy (sits around 91). He DOES have a very nice slider and a great splitter.

I'm just not as convinced his success translates to the big leagues. I see a lot more Daisuke Matsuzaka (control guy who throws a lot of pitches but doesn't haven't dynamite stuff) than Yu Darvish.

Tanaka's posting could help the Royals indirectly.

I would assume that his entrance into the MLB FA market knocks all the other starters...Garza, Santana down a notch.

And with Santana coming with draft pick compensation, the odds of him settling for less go up. Slightly.

Was looking through the clubs moves and can't remember who the player was but we offered them minor league assignment to stay with the organization, but they passed and signed with a Japanese club which I found amusing, only wish they had a cooler logo and I would have been interested in picking up a hat or t-shirt, etc.

The Hokkaido Nippon-
Ham Fighters

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/28/y6era2e7.jpg

HIs stuff was absolutely dynamite his first couple years in MLB.

Well...people started to figure him out....and then of course he got injured a lot.

But yeah that first yr or 2...he was dominant. Didn't last long...kinda like Hideo Nomo or whatever his name is.

Seems like he out of shape and never got back in.

No. Given that Japanese star-level players tend to want to play in the coasts or Texas, we'd have to blow away every other offer to make him come to the midwest, and even a competitive offer would be too risky for KC given our resources.

edit: to be clear, since we don't actually have to pay the posting fee to talk to him (the old rules said we couldn't even talk to the guy unless we won the bid), someone in the Royals front office ought to have a chat with his agent just in case he freakishly comes from a long line of asian Royals fans and no one ever found out about it, but as soon as its clear that we can't get him, hang up the phone and never talk about it again.