Daisuke Matsuzaka Continues to be a Huge Disappointment
It’s time to face an unfortunate fact Red Sox fans:
Daisuke Matsuzaka just isn’t that good.
Whether it’s during a game, a season, or an entire career, he’s far too inconsistent.
After leaving Japan for Major League Baseball with the highest of expectations, Dice-K has thoroughly frustrated Red Sox Nation for the last four years.
Through three starts in spring training, it appears that nothing has changed.
Matsuzaka posted argaubly his worst Grapefruit League outing on Thursday, allowing five earned runs and eight baserunners in less than four innings of work.
He threw 66 pitches to the Rays in those 3.2 IP (followed by 18 more in the bullpen). Only nine of his first 24 pitches against Tampa Bay were for strikes.
Dice-K’s spring ERA now stands a shade under 12.
Matsuzaka’s first two starts were intended to test various pitches (the fastball in start one, then his breaking ball in start two), but the righty’s goal was to showcase the complete package in his third start.
Instead, it was more of what we’ve all seen for the last four years from the Japanese enigma.
At this point, Red Sox Nation must be taking a parental approach to Dice-K’s continued struggles. We’re not angry, we’re just disappointed.
After all, “disappointing” is the best way to describe his tenure in Boston to this point.
But that was a word which Terry Francona was unwilling to use in reference to his projected fifth starter after his most recent failure (courtesy of The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham):
“I think he’s in great shape. I think his shoulder’s strong. The ball’s coming out. He’s what, eight, nine innings into camp and he hasn’t commanded at times. I don’t think that means he’s out of shape or he’s disappointing”.
Those are understandable comments from a man with a strong reputation as a player’s manager.
Regardless or whether he actually believes those words, he’s likely the only one to verbalize that sense of optimism regarding Matsuzaka’s status heading into the season.
It doesn’t appear that he’s hurt. That’s been an excuse far too many times in Dice-K’s career, as was the case in the first two months of his 2010 campaign.
I realize it’s only three starts into spring training, but anyone who is surprised by his early inconsistencies hasn’t watched any of his 98 starts as a Major League pitcher.
This is unfortunately what Dice-K is as a starting pitcher, and the odds of him improving significantly here in 2011 are extremely slim.
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