TAMPA — Saturday will be mostly about the spectacle, not so much about the statistics or scouting reports. Come to George M. Steinbrenner Field for Masahiro Tanaka’s Grapefruit League debut and stay for the delicious Hershey’s ice cream — or watch it on TV and find your own damn ice cream — and afterward, don’t think too much about either.
“I understand that there’s going to be a lot of attention on the results, the numbers, on how I do out there,” Tanaka said through an interpreter Friday morning. “For me, now looking at it, I just want to go out there and pitch my style out there and see how it is on the mound.”
When he takes the mound against the Phillies, probably in the fifth inning (after CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda take their turns), the right-hander will get his first taste of live Major League Baseball action and begin the next step of his transition from Japan. But whereas the Yankees’ other new stars should be close to fully adjusted by the end of March, the $155 million rookie Tanaka surely will require far more than this next month to feel fully settled.
“To be honest, I don’t think I’m used to it even now,” the eminently humble Kuroda said.
Joe Girardi said Tanaka likely will start either the third or fourth game of the Yankees’ regular season, if all goes according to plan. Starting the third game, April 3 at Houston, would enable Tanaka to ease into major league life by facing the Astros, who ranked 14th in the American League last year (ahead of only the White Sox) with 610 runs scored. Yet, as The Post’s Joel Sherman explained in a February 21 column, starting Tanaka in the fourth game, April 4 at Toronto, would give him five days’ rest on four of his first six starts. That also would split up Kuroda, set to start April 2 at Houston, and Tanaka, a move Kuroda endorsed.
“If you look at the stuff that we have, the number of pitches, it could be said we’re similar,” Kuroda said. “Because we’re from Japan. Our mechanics may be similar.”
No matter his talent, Tanaka will need as much room for error as possible, so vast is his adjustment. That’s why Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has worked to temper expectations.
It isn’t just about changing his pitching schedule from once a week to once every five days. There’s also the travel, which is considerably more challenging here than in the relatively small span of Japan. And the food from city to city. And countless other items. They are elements that can’t be learned during the ease and comfort of spring training.
“Obviously, the exhibition games and regular-season games are different,” Kuroda said. “And you have to get used to pitching 100 pitches in a game and recovering after the outing. Stuff like that.”
In spring training, you get in shape, and you start getting a rough lay of the land, understanding you won’t see everyone’s tricks quite yet. Hideki Matsui, in Yankees camp as a guest instructor, began seeing opposing pitchers’ two-seam fastballs during exhibition games in 2003. However, he didn’t start to master handling the pitch, which he almost never saw in Japan, until deep into his rookie year.
“It was a huge plus, because you get to face the American pitchers,” Matsui, through an interpreter, said of spring training. “Getting the flow of the game was a huge plus.”
A reporter asked Tanaka whether anything in spring training had surprised him to date. “I wasn’t really surprised, because I knew pretty much what I was getting into,” he replied. “I had some of the information coming in here, so I wasn’t very surprised with anything. But there might be some going into games from here on in.”
There will be surprises, and challenges, and probably some valleys. Virtually everyone in baseball thinks Tanaka will be a very good pitcher, eventually. It won’t happen instantly, though. Certainly not on March 1.
“Hopefully he keeps his emotions in check a little bit, tries not to do too much,” Girardi said. “Players a lot of time want to validate a contract. I’ve always said Japanese-born pitchers and players can have more pride. They feel like they’re pitching for their whole country.”
As long as Tanaka doesn’t physically extend himself as a result of that pride, it’ll be a successful first day. For now, the bar is set even lower than Cashman’s “number three starter” bar.