A DREAM COME TRUE:  “YANKEE FAN TODAY TOMORROW FOREVER”

Finally, the Yankees signed an ace!!  Every offseason and every trading deadline most Yankees’ fans (including me) have expressed a strong desire for the Yankees to sign a premium starting pitcher.  Well, the Steinbrenners and Brian Cashman have finally inked such a deal for one of the best 3 starting pitchers in today’s game…Gerrit Cole.  The deal is generically valued at $324 million for 9 years.  Last year, Gerrit had a 0.895 WHIP (anything below 1.0 is superb) and struck out 326 batters!  He just turned 29, so he’s just begun his prime years as a starting pitcher. As for the playoffs, his performance is amongst the best of all time, including a WHIP of 0.868.

With Paxton supposedly resolving his pitching flaws (briefly demonstrated in the latter half of last season once he was forced to use his overwhelming curveball), with Tanaka also proving to be a top-notch playoff pitcher, and with the “potential” of Severino’s health bringing him back to where he was prior to the injuries, the Yankees have a heck of a starting pitching rotation.  In fact, many of the so-called experts have already judged them to have the best starting pitching in the game!  When’s the last time you ever heard that declaration from them?

Also, remember that every major additional transaction to a team also creates a subtraction from the team he left.  In this case, it’s the cheating Astros who suffer the consequences.  The Yankees coveted Gerrit Cole since 2008 during the MLB Draft and tried to trade for him in 2017.  Now, thankfully, he’s a Yankee!