All eyes on Tanaka for finale
MASAHIRO TANAKA has an opportunity Sunday night to quell some of the concerns surrounding the slight ligament tear in his right elbow and his somewhat diminished fastball velocity when he takes the mound to face the Red Sox in the final game of the Yankees’ opening home stand.
The 26-year-old was rocked on Opening Day for five runs in the third inning. He barely threw any four-seam fastballs, relying mostly on his off-speed pitches, and never dialed it up into the mid-90s.
Tanaka seems to be trying to keep all the discussion about his health out of his head.
“I can’t control what everybody else does,” Tanaka said before Saturday’s game. “So I only try to do what I can control and that’s try to get ready for my next game, so that’s all I’ve been doing.”
The righthander, who missed roughly 11 weeks last season with a partial UCL tear that he did not seek Tommy John surgery for, said in Washington two days before the season began that people shouldn’t expect as much from him this year in terms of velocity. Daily News columnist John Harper reported in Wednesday’s editions that the Yankees believe what Tanaka said may have been lost in translation and that the talk of his diminished velocity is overblown.
Tanaka said Saturday that he’s not holding anything back on the mound. He said he had a meeting with the coaching staff regarding his velocity, and Joe Girardi later said he felt too much was being made of it.
“His average velocity the other day was one mile (per hour) off his average velocity for the whole season last year, and it is only his first start,” Girardi said. “He will continue to develop arm strength as the season goes on. When he talked about it in Washington, he talked about, the way I understood in talking to him, ‘I’m not a guy that throws 96-97-98 and blows people away. That’s not the type of pitcher I am.’
“I think you really get caught up in velocity instead of making your pitches. The other day, he made mistakes with his fastball. His fastball got hit last year, too. I’m not going to tell him to go out there and throw as hard as you can. What he needs to do, and as all pitchers need to do, you need to locate a little bit better.”
Pressed on the meeting, Girardi said he doesn’t reveal if he’s had specific talks with players.
“I don’t talk about meetings with my players because there are things you don’t necessarily want everyone to know, things you work on, things you do,” he said. “When I have a meeting with a player, it’s with the player.”
Tanaka felt the previous four days were good for him as he looked at film and worked on his mechanics, although as usual he didn’t delve into specifics. He was asked if he’d throw more four-seamers as he builds up more arm strength.
“I can’t really say that I’ll be throwing more of certain pitches,” Tanaka said.
“I guess it’ll depend on that certain day, what kind of batter you’re facing, what kind of pitches I’m working on in the bullpen. I’ll look at that and go into my games.”