Great pic, great headline for that pic. And yes, sorry to see him go as he was the most stable of the starters of late, but I'm glad he's going out on his terms; he deserves that.

And hey, we have to press the reset button at some point. Now it's open for another young arm to prove themselves and maybe grow into a stable member of the rotation. I know most of the uber-outlet reporters will rile up the EZ-Bake quickfans against such a thing, but there is that stupid thing called hope >;)

A small move:

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/12/29/the-yankees-trade-shawn-kelley-to-the-padres/

More from our pal Jay Jaffe:

http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/12/29/hiroki-kuroda-japan-yankees-dodgers-hideo-nomo

[2] Trying to get younger. I wonder if they expect Manny B to make a big impact this spring. Certainly a couple of the others they brought in.

So will Tanaka get #18 now?

He was a joy to watch every 5 days, and I will miss that, but I begrudge him absolutely nothing for making his decision.

Take care Hiroki.

Carp fans here are overjoyed, and I'm sure he's got a lot left in his right arm to produce well in the NPB. お疲れ様、黒田さん！

I'm glad for him for sure. He did end up being our anchor this past year. Though i'm also excited to see where things go from here. I really just want one more big bat, and if not, then Max.