Yordano Ventura, Fire and Flame

          Yordano Ventura, he of firebreathing properties, burnt the aquatic Tampa Bay Rays to a crisp yesterday evening. Unfortunately, Chris Archer shot down the flailing Royals offense, too, so nobody did anything on offense until the starters exited the stage. Pitcher’s duels aren’t without their merit, though. Given that Yordano Ventura is the most-hyped Royals pitching prospect since probably Zack Greinke, it seems fitting to overanalyze and overreact to Yordano’s* performance last night.

*Ventura’s nickname appears to be “Ace Ventura”, but in keeping with Royals tradition, I’m sure Ned Yost will refer to him as “Yordy” at some point, if he hasn’t already.

Yankees Free Agent Target

          When in the course of MLB free agency it comes time to hand out contracts, the Yankees have been in the habit of needing more than one person to hand out those contracts, both due to size and length of the contracts. All those papers get heavy. During the past offseason, the Yankees signed famed Rising Sun hurler Masahiro Tanaka to a contract with more zeroes in it than the G00gle; 155 million of them, to be exact. Tanaka does not have the résumé to justify such zeroes.