Masahiro Tanaka Signing Signals Hot Stove Warm Up

Dec 11, 2013; Orlando, FL, USA; Rakuten Golden Eagles president Yozo Tachibana (right) walks through the lobby during the MLB Winter Meetings at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort. Tachibana has not decided whether or not to allow Masahiro Tanaka (not pictured) to sign with a MLB team now that Nippon Professional Baseball and the MLB have agreed on a $20 Million maximum posting bid. Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

There are a couple reasons why I have included the Bruce Springsteen video in this post. First, I love Bruce Springsteen and you can never have enough Boss in your life. Two, Springsteen refers to a fish called ‘Big Jim’ and his story about Big Jim reminds me a little bit of Masahiro Tanaka, who signed a seven-year $155 million deal with the New York Yankees on Wednesday.

Here’s the verse about Big Jim if you don’t want to listen to the song:

"Ol’ catfish in the lake, we called him Big JimWhen I was a kid, my only wish was to get my line in himSkipped church one Sunday rowed out and throw’d in my lineJim took that hook pole and me right over the sideWent driftin’ down past old tires and rusty cans of beerThe angel of the lake whispered in my ear“Before you chose your wish sonYou better think firstWith every wish there comes a curse”"

Big Jim took the narrator for a ride and scared the crap out of him, which some people believe happened to the Yankees when they seemingly overpaid for Tanaka’s services. That I don’t really care about because the Yankees have sold their soul to the devil before and they have 27 World Championships, they probably deserve to be cursed for a little bit.

My thoughts connecting Big Jim and Tanaka were really just out of the vein of Tanaka being the big fish. The big fish is now out of the water and now all the other little fishes, which aren’t really so little, will now also fall in line.

The likes of Ubaldo Jiminez, Ervin Santana, Matt Garza and Bronson Arroyo should now be signing very soon which is a good thing for the Minnesota Twins. There’s still some hope in the minds of some that the Twins still might sign Bronson Arroyo or maybe even Matt Garza, now I don’t believe that either of these will come true, but the dominoes will soon fall and we will soon know almost exactly what the Twins will be dealing with for a starting rotation for 2014.

To support my point, somewhere in my inhaling of 1500ESPN on-demand podcasts, someone (Phil Mackey or Darren Wolfson, most likely) said that the Twins are focusing on getting offense right now and not pitching.

Tanaka is just the start, now we’re just waiting for the rest of the cards to fall into place. The signing of Tanaka is good for the league, because it means the hot stove will fire up one more time and it’s good for little ol’ bloggers like me because we finally might have some Twins news to talk about.

At the very least, maybe some news that isn’t about sending replacement level players to Korea.