Continuing with the NY Yankees rumors for the day, it looks like the stat-heads over at ESPN are still not sold on the New York Yankees as World Series contenders in 2014, or even as a playoff team for that matter.
According to Dan Szymborski and his ZiPs projection machine, the Yankees' addition of Japanese ace pitcher Masahiro Tanaka comes with just under a 4-win boost, which in Szymborski's eyes would still leave the NY Yankees on the outside of the playoffs looking in--
"...after simulating the 2014 season a million times (assuming current roster construction), the pre-Tanaka Yankees won the division 7.2 percent of the time, made the playoffs either through a division championship or a wild card 19.7 percent of the time, and won the World Series in 1.7 percent of the million simulations."
Szymborski also went on to say that Masahiro Tanaka "is unlikely to be a true superstar," using Clayton Kershaw as a counterexample of a pitcher who can "actually add six to 10 wins to a team." However, it is safe to say that projections are just educated guesses, and that Tanaka's talent may be undervalued by Dan Szymborski's ZiP machine.