Daisuke Matsuzaka: How his shirt got me on Japanese TV

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I got free tickets to see the SF Giants on Friday evening and I finally got a chance to wear the Daisuke Matsuzaka Seibu Lions t-shirt I got for my birthday.

My guest and I were sitting at our seats chatting and snacking and suddenly two women appear (with a camera and a microphone) and ask if they could interview me.

I was caught off guard but I said "sure!" The younger woman with the TV camera and she began filming.

The older woman asks me why I'm wearing Daisuke Matsuzaka t-shirt from Seibu Lions. I tell them that DM is one of the greatest pitchers in the world and I admire his talent and skill. I tell them that DM will more than likely be pitching in USA next year, and they both agree.

They ask me what my impression of his pitching is, and I tell them when I watched DM in person in Japan and in the WBC, his pitching form is nearly perfect... there is no wasted motion. His delivery is beautiful, I have not seen any pitcher with such flawless mechanics.

She asks me what I think DM would accomplish in USA MLB, and I'm caught off-guard so I say "20 wins". They both raise their eyebrows at each other. [What was I supposed to say: "lead the AL in VORP"?]

We talk about the gyroball and how it seems to be more of a myth than an actual pitch that can be thrown with any frequency.

She then asks me which Japanese teams I have seen and I list off the Yomiuri Giants, Yakult Swallows and Hanshin Tigers and of course my favorite team, the Seibu Lions.

She asks me to make a prediction for the game and at that time, it was incredibly windy blowing straight out to right field. I predict there will be many homeruns.

There were no homeruns. Giants won 9-0 over Colorado Rockies.

The program is called "jsports" and it airs this sunday:
http://www.tbs.co.jp/program/jsports.html

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 16:42 (nineteen years ago)

Did you give the interview in Japanese?

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 18:09 (nineteen years ago)

No, but at the end of the interview they asked if I spoke Japanese and I said "I sincerely apologize that my command of your beautiful language is not at the level at which I feel confident speaking with you" in this really honorific tense which cracked them up.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 18:48 (nineteen years ago)

smoove

― Jimmy Mod: NOIZE BOARD GRIL COMPARISON ANALYST (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Tuesday, 30 May 2006 21:50 (nineteen years ago)

Hightlights of DM's 3-hit, 14 strikeout complete game shutout of Hanshin Tigers last Friday:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YAwmW2S-xX4

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Friday, 2 June 2006 03:43 (nineteen years ago)

why does the field look so weird

― INSANE CLOWN FOSSE (Adrian Langston), Friday, 2 June 2006 13:46 (nineteen years ago)

It's turf (Seibu Dome).

That's Andy Sheets (former Red Sox/Padre/D-Ray) in the last at-bat.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Friday, 2 June 2006 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

Wow! A very interesting pitcher to watch.

― scrimhaw1837 (son_of_scrimshaw), Friday, 2 June 2006 14:56 (nineteen years ago)

Here's a close-up of his gyroball, developed by SCIENTISTS:

http://www.rotoauthority.com/files/gyroballvideo.mpeg

― scrimhaw1837 (son_of_scrimshaw), Friday, 2 June 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

Hightlights of DM's 3-hit, 14 strikeout complete game shutout of Hanshin Tigers last Friday:

THAT is a clinic.

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Saturday, 3 June 2006 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

I was very disappointed Matsuzaka didn't get into the majors this year, but not too surprised. Fantastic pitcher, though I worry about the very high number of pitches he has thrown throughout his career resulting in arm surgery at any time. Getting to watch him pitch was the highlight of the WBC for me.

― ALLAH FROG (Mingus Dew), Monday, 5 June 2006 20:59 (nineteen years ago)

i can't stop watching this

― INSANE CLOWN FOSSE (Adrian Langston), Wednesday, 7 June 2006 22:42 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Matsuzaka, in the midst of another dominating season in Japan (9-2, 2.05 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 10.08K/9, 103:19 (5.42) K:BB ratio, leading the league in Ws & Ks), had to leave Saturday's game due to a groin injury and will have to miss at least one start. The Seibu Lions right-hander left the mound in the first inning after throwing just 19 pitches against Bobby Valentine's defending J-League champion Chiba Lotte Marines.

According to the team trainer, Matsuzaka did not require hospitalization (which, in Japan, may just mean that Matsuzaka's leg didn't fall off). The Lions expect Matsuzaka to return to action in time to start on July 7 against Hokkaido. Matsuzaka is expected to be allowed to sign with an MLB club this winter via the posting system and may be one of the most sought-after free agents on the market.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Monday, 26 June 2006 16:16 (nineteen years ago)

Yankees
10 years
5 bazillion dollars

― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 26 June 2006 16:26 (nineteen years ago)

Are major league teams scouting and signing young Japanese players yet? You'd think that they'd want to be getting to the Ichiros and Matsuzakas of the future before they get locked into the JPL.

― milo z (mlp), Monday, 26 June 2006 23:12 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

Larry Stone had a long article in yesterday's Seattle Times speculating that Matsuzaka's chances are 50/50 of being posted at the end of the season, with the Yankees and the Mariners the top two teams vying for him. I can't imagine that Seattle could beat whatever the Yankees would pay for a posting fee, but hey, fun speculation.

― jergins (jergins), Monday, 7 August 2006 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

my friend sez "he needs a third out pitch, either a splitter or a tornado, or he's gotta add 3-4mph to the 4-seamer and hope he gets signed in the NL"

hay does anyone still have that picture of matsuzaka & tom cruise???

― BITCH FUK UR MYANMARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!! (Adrian Langston), Tuesday, 8 August 2006 17:53 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.tomcruisefan.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=459

― john loltrane (loltrane), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 18:08 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

With a week remaining in J-league play, Matsuzaka will make 2 starts including one tonight, at what looks to be his last regular season start at Seibu Dome.

In 23 starts, he's compiled a 16-4 record (13 complete games and 2 shutouts) with a 1.93 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 189K:32BB (5.90 K/BB, 9.87 K/9) ratio.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Monday, 18 September 2006 22:22 (nineteen years ago)

*Whistles* jeez just what the Yankees need.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 18 September 2006 22:29 (nineteen years ago)

"Zach (MD): Put together an Orioles offseason plan for me? And also what do you think about Daisuke Matsuzaka? How much is it going to cost to get him and his really going to be an ace?

Will Carroll: Orioles ... I think they need any plan, right or wrong. I hope they don't go spend a bunch of money, but instead focus on getting everything in order, then making a push once they've built an 85 win team.

Matsuzaka is going to cost about $30m to buy his rights, then about the same for a three-year deal. I think that based on what I've seen of him on tape and at the Classic, he's one of the ten best pitchers in the game. There's a lot of risk there, both in adjustment and health, but a lot of upside.

One of the more interesting things to watch for is how he'll adjust to changing his windup. The pause might not be legal. Any umpires want to comment?"

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 16:33 (nineteen years ago)

So here's the line from the game last night:

Complete game win (17-4): 2 runs, 1 earned, 8Ks, 0BBs, 7 hits.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 17:42 (nineteen years ago)

2006 Season line:
1.79 ERA, 0.89 WHIP, 197K:32BB ratio

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 17:47 (nineteen years ago)

Yes yes he's great, but I'm curious about the delivery adjustment thing that Carroll mentions.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 19 September 2006 18:00 (nineteen years ago)

Will Carroll is full of shit (cf: gyroball).

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 20 September 2006 01:40 (nineteen years ago)

Wait why is Carroll full of shit about the gyroball?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 20 September 2006 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

Because he was mistakenly under the impression that Matsuzaka throws it or that it exists?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 20 September 2006 14:31 (nineteen years ago)

C) all of the above.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 20 September 2006 15:03 (nineteen years ago)

(cf: Felix Hernandez slider [ZOMG HIS BEST PITCH!!!111] )

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 20 September 2006 15:03 (nineteen years ago)

His final start of 2006 begins at 6:00pm in Japan (2:00am PST, 5:00am EST).

All you insomniacs can tune in to the gameday simulation here:
http://baseball.yahoo.co.jp/npb/game/2006092604/

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 05:32 (nineteen years ago)

FYI: He's batting .333/.333/.778 just to tempt those NL clubs who have yet to express interest.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 05:34 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Scott Boras has announced that he will be representing Daisuke Matsuzaka as his agent in talks with MLB clubs.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Friday, 13 October 2006 18:38 (nineteen years ago)

Oh Christ.

― nate p. (natepatrin), Friday, 13 October 2006 18:41 (nineteen years ago)

let's go METS

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 13 October 2006 18:43 (nineteen years ago)

I hope he milks the Yankees for all their worth and then implodes.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 13 October 2006 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

You rang?

― Kevin Brown. (Steve Shasta), Friday, 13 October 2006 19:11 (nineteen years ago)

hi dere

― Carl Pavano (sanskrit), Saturday, 14 October 2006 01:31 (nineteen years ago)

no matter which team bites, the posting fee will be made back over time by reselling broadcast rights to Japan -- Matsuzaka + Ichiro S. or Matsusaka + H. Matsui should be enough to get the overseas market excited. But yeah, that reduces the market to two teams.

i assume this fee is negotiable if neither team antes up, wouldn't the Lions consider accepting a lower payout rather than getting nothing at a later date?

― ▒█▄█ ▄▄▄ ▒█▄█ , Saturday, 14 October 2006 01:37 (nineteen years ago)

i assume this fee is negotiable if neither team antes up, wouldn't the Lions consider accepting a lower payout rather than getting nothing at a later date?

it's not so much a fee than a bid. But it has no bearing on (or credit toward) DM's eventual salary.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 14 October 2006 01:59 (nineteen years ago)

Matsuzaka + Ichiro S. or Matsusaka + H. Matsui should be enough to get the overseas market excited. But yeah, that reduces the market to two teams.

But wottabout Matsuzaka + So Taguchi???

― nate p. (natepatrin), Monday, 16 October 2006 23:08 (nineteen years ago)

what about Matsuzaka + CHIPPER JONES?????

― fergie-ferg meluvulongtime~~~ (Adrian Langston), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 03:51 (nineteen years ago)

Chipper Jones isn't Japanese. He just listens to Pizzicatto Five all the time, that doesn't count.

― nate p. (natepatrin), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 15:30 (nineteen years ago)

World Series Notebook: Does Matsuzaka want to join Ichiro?
Yankees expected to battle Mariners for star pitcher

By JOHN HICKEY
SEATTLE P-I REPORTER

DETROIT -- The World Series, as always, is a celebration of the two teams that outlasted the other 28 to make it into the second half of October.

That doesn't mean the other 28 can be completely dismissed during the Fall Classic.

Not far from the talk of the Tigers and the Cardinals is talk of how others are planning on making it to the Series next year and beyond.

In many circles, that talk includes Daisuke Matsuzaka. The teams that are believed to be preparing posting bids to pay the Seibu Lions for the rights to the services of the right-handed starting pitcher are the Mariners, Yankees, Red Sox, Rangers, Dodgers, Cubs and Mets. And the Angels and Orioles might take a flier at the 26-year-old right-hander who was 17-5 with a 2.13 ERA in Japan this season.

But where is it that Matsuzaka himself would like to land? Baseball sources say that if he could choose, he'd come to Seattle to play. The reasons are twofold -- center fielder Ichiro Suzuki and catcher Kenji Johjima.

Matsuzaka, associates say, has long wanted to play with Ichiro, something that both men experienced in the World Baseball Classic last spring. Team Japan won the tournament with Matsuzaka winning the Most Valuable Player award and Ichiro serving as mentor to the younger men on the team.

And Matsuzaka and Johjima spent time as teammates at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The Mariners, and everyone else, had believed they would have one last chance to scout Matsuzaka next month when a team of major league All-Stars, including Johjima, plays a five-game tour in Japan.

Matsuzaka was supposed to be on the Japanese select squad, but this weekend came word that he is pulling out. He cited lingering pain from a hit off his right elbow in September, while tour organizers said he was withdrawing because he wanted to focus on his conditioning in preparation for joining a major league team.

The posting process probably will run its course by the middle of next month. The Yankees, the team with the most money, and the Mariners, the team with the best Japanese connections, are widely considered the clubs that will ultimately butt heads for the right to sign Matsuzaka.

However, the bids are submitted just once for each team, no one knowing what the other teams might do. Seattle bid $13.1 million for Ichiro in fall 2000, and most believe this year's winning bid on Matsuzaka will be in excess of $20 million.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Monday, 23 October 2006 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

oh this is good

― jergins (jergins), Monday, 23 October 2006 19:08 (nineteen years ago)

now i read that the mariners aren't going to bid on him. damn it hell

― jergins (jergins), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 21:51 (nineteen years ago)

Mariners have indeed pulled out leaving at least six teams left in the bidding:

Yankees
Mets
Dodgers
Cubs
Red Sox
Rangers

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 1 November 2006 22:14 (nineteen years ago)

My BOLD PREDICTION:
1) Yankees get him
2) Media says "OK this time for real they win the World Series"
3) no they don't

― nate p. (natepatrin), Friday, 3 November 2006 17:56 (nineteen years ago)

Dodgers are out of the bidding so sayeth the LA Times and Ned Colletti. I'm sure we'll be finding other ways to help line Boras' pocket tho..

― Stuh-du-du-du-du-du-du-denka (jingleberries), Friday, 3 November 2006 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

No way do the Rangers sign him after Chan Ho and A-Rod.

― milo z (mlp), Friday, 3 November 2006 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

NJ Star-Ledger's Dan Graziano (sorry i can't seem to find the actual link so i cut and pasted out of another blog):

"But there may be loopholes. It can be in the Japanese team's best interest for the winning bid to come from a team with which the player wants to sign, since that is the only way the Japanese team gets money. So a Japanese team could make an under-the-table deal with a U.S. team in which only a portion of the winning bid would have to be paid. When the Seattle Mariners won the rights to sign Ichiro Suzuki in 2000, there were rumors they paid just $4 million of the $13 million winning bid to the Orix Blue Wave."

Okay, I understand the posting system even less now.

― jergins (jergins), Friday, 3 November 2006 22:21 (nineteen years ago)

reggiejacksonkimono.jpg

― manute lol (sanskrit), Sunday, 5 November 2006 04:18 (nineteen years ago)

hey shasta et al,

wrong place for this, but search fuction is fuxxored

i cant revive that watching games from cpu thread, how does one tune in through cable or other means to the recent mlb/japan games? any us broadcasts?

― manute lol (sanskrit), Sunday, 5 November 2006 04:26 (nineteen years ago)

I watched that youtube clip and paid close attention to his pitching motion. There are a lot of pauses during his delivery, it reminds of descriptions of Luis Tiant's style. I'm not sure it's legal, particularly with men on base, but it depends on how literally you interpret the rule book.

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 5 November 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

No no no Will Carroll is full of shit (see above.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Sunday, 5 November 2006 15:40 (nineteen years ago)

I thought you guys were referring to the gyroball up there?

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 5 November 2006 18:44 (nineteen years ago)

Haha ask Steve, but I thought he was talking about more generally.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Sunday, 5 November 2006 19:38 (nineteen years ago)

Will Carrol seems like a conspiracy theorist.

Anyways, back to matters at hand, there are 6 teams that have submitted sealed bids to the Seibu Lion to win the rights to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka. The teams are rumored to be the D-Backs, Red Sox, Cubs, Mets, Yankees and Rangers.

The bidding deadline is 5pm EST (15 minutes from now).

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 21:41 (nineteen years ago)

So by consensus of all the rumors I've read, either the Diamondbacks, Mets, Rangers, Angels, or Red Sox won the bidding, and the winning amount was either 17.1 million, 19 million, 24 million, or 26 million, depending on who you're asking.

Strangely, none of the rumors I've seen have the Yankees winning, so I'm beginning to assume that they did.

― govern yourself accordingly (dayan), Thursday, 9 November 2006 21:15 (nineteen years ago)

I can't believe the bid is going to be less than 24 million. I can believe the Yankees not winning though.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 9 November 2006 21:22 (nineteen years ago)

Nice to see the posting rumors are reaching new highs in absurdity. ESPN is reporting the Red Sox might have bid anywhere from $38-$45 million. WTF.

― Stuh-du-du-du-du-du-du-denka (jingleberries), Friday, 10 November 2006 18:33 (nineteen years ago)

From the same ESPN report: Major League Basball then took the highest bid and forwarded only the dollar figure -- not the identity of the team -- to the Seibu Lions.

Before DM, did MLB keep secret which team posted what? Or is this a recent thing, what with the rumored M's/Ichiro shenanigans?

― c('°c) (Leee), Friday, 10 November 2006 20:17 (nineteen years ago)

I think they did keep it secret before this, yes.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 10 November 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2660428

The Red Sox bid $42 million for the right to negotiate with prized Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, sources told ESPN's Peter Gammons. Boston's bid far exceeded any other team's offer.

Matsuzaka will learn Tuesday whether the Seibu Lions have accepted a bid for him by a major league team.

Major League Baseball and the Japanese commissioner's office will make simultaneous announcements at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday (10 a.m. Tokyo time Wednesday), MLB spokesman Pat Courtney said Monday at the big league general managers' meetings.

― govern yourself accordingly (dayan), Monday, 13 November 2006 21:10 (nineteen years ago)

I was just about to post that, except more along the lines of HOLY SHIT $42mn OMGWTFLOL

― milo z (mlp), Monday, 13 November 2006 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2006/11/reports_sox_get.html

Orestes Destrade (!) is apparently reporting on his XM radio show that the bid is $50+ million.

― govern yourself accordingly (dayan), Monday, 13 November 2006 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

!!! Wow. So if it is true that Boras is going to go for a three year deal than this could mean the Red Sox will pay maybe $25 million a year for him. That seems pretty insane. Although if they can't come to a deal with Boras, I'm not sure that it wasn't worth it just to make sure that the Yankees won't get him.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 13 November 2006 21:17 (nineteen years ago)

Does the posting fee count against for luxury tax?

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 18:34 (nineteen years ago)

Joe (Washington, DC): Kevin: What are your thoughts on the Matsuzaka news? Mistake by the Sox?

Kevin Goldstein:

I don't think it's a mistake at all, but I don't think we can really judge until we know what his contract looks like.

I've talked to plenty of people about him, and many think he's an immediate No. 1 starter, and nobody I've spoken to has ranked him lower than a No. 2.

He's an immense talent, and ability to afford it plays a big role as well. Contracts are not by default a mistake because they are a lot of money. It would be a mistake for say, the Marlins to give a guy $20M a year, but for the Red Sox? Not necessarily.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 18:38 (nineteen years ago)

MENTALISM

― songs and ballads of the bituminous miners (sanskrit), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 18:40 (nineteen years ago)

Some have speculated that the Boston bid is to block the Yankees, but sources told Gammons that is absolutety false. Boston badly wants the pitcher, the marketing revenues from the Japanese market and an entrance in the door of the future of Asian baseball.

pardon my ignorance, but if a deal is not made within 30 days, why not revert to the 2nd place bidder?

― songs and ballads of the bituminous miners (sanskrit), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 18:45 (nineteen years ago)

Because he's still under contract with the Lions (for 1 more year), he's not a pure free agent (like Gozira Matsui was).

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 18:47 (nineteen years ago)

Also because the posting rules are totally weird.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 19:01 (nineteen years ago)

its not weird at all, it's intended to protect the japan league from being pillaged by mlb. I don't have a problem with it at all.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 19:54 (nineteen years ago)

I don't see how not reverting to the next highest bidder and making Matsuzaka wait a year turn free agent with the Lions getting no money instead really protects anyone, but whatever.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 20:00 (nineteen years ago)

I have a problem with it! fuck those nips and their player hoarding bullshit. they'd take all our best dudes if any of them had low enough self-esteem to want to play over there.

― get yr coat luv uve jes bin pulld (Adrian Langston), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 20:25 (nineteen years ago)

The posting system gives one team one chance at negotiating with a player who is under contract. If multiple bids were considered, the process would become even more time consuming for all teams, leagues and players involved.

When you say the Lions "get no money" you seem to be ignoring that the Lions retain the services (and revenue generated by) Daisuke Matsuzaka which is worth, in fact, a lot of money.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

I'm guessing it's not worth the $25+ million that the second bid likely would have been worth otherwise they wouldn't have bothered with this at all.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 21:11 (nineteen years ago)

mlb.com has a live telecast.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 00:59 (nineteen years ago)

Red Sox bid was officially accepted, negotiotions will occur over the next 30 days.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 01:01 (nineteen years ago)

Theo has until midnight of December 15th to structure a contract that Matsuzaka/Boras accept.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 01:06 (nineteen years ago)

51.1M

WAHT

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 01:58 (nineteen years ago)

lol @ theo when his arm falls off

― jergins (jergins), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 02:49 (nineteen years ago)

Have any MLB teams really worked at scouting high-school and college-age talent in Japan in order to circumvent the posting system?

― milo z (mlp), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 03:00 (nineteen years ago)

51 million jesus christ.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 03:22 (nineteen years ago)

How much could they conceivably get for Japanese broadcasting rights? $10m a year?

― milo z (mlp), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 03:56 (nineteen years ago)

Big fan of Matsuzaka and his talents, but 51 million plus whatever the cost of his contract ends up seems pretty crazy, considering the injury risk involved with any pitcher. Makes me happy he won't be going to the Yankees though. Most annoying of all is how many articles keep claiming he throws the gyroball, which isn't really the case.

― DJ Cluberlang (Sleepy), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 05:08 (nineteen years ago)

this is a good thread to read from the top.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 16:05 (nineteen years ago)

esp. milo's comments. :-P

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

The top 4 bids:

Boston Red Sox: $51.1M
New York Mets: $39.0M
New York Yankees: $33.0M
Texas Rangers: $27.0M

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 16:31 (nineteen years ago)

It doesn't look like Hicks is trying haha.

― c('°c) (Leee), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

It doesn't really look like anyone other than Boston was trying. $51.1m. Wow.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 17:21 (nineteen years ago)

Hicks learned his lesson the last time he was blindly bidding for someone's services.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 17:25 (nineteen years ago)

Hideki Matsui makes $13M
Ichiro makes $12.5M

It will be interesting if Matsuzaka makes close to that right off the bat.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 18:41 (nineteen years ago)

I would be surprised if he doesn't, honestly. I would not be surprised if it was as much at 15mil per. You know... CHAN HO PARK money.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 19:05 (nineteen years ago)

is it supposed to be funny because Park is also asian?

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 19:19 (nineteen years ago)

is it supposed to be funny because Park is also asian?

No, because he sucks.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

According to Jiji Press, the fee for Matsuzaka's rights was nearly equal to three times the Lions' entire payroll for 2006.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=2662960

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 20:10 (nineteen years ago)

I expect he will be in the same range as Ichiro and Matsui in terms of money, maybe more. Matsuzaka has all the leverage in the world, since he can always finish out his last year and become a FA next year, if he doesn't feel Boston's offer is good enough. Surely he and Boras are both aware of the kind of money having him in Boston will allow the team to rake in as well.

― DJ Cluberlang (Sleepy), Thursday, 16 November 2006 06:24 (nineteen years ago)

does anyone have any hard data on past posting fees made and actual value/duration of negotiated contracts they resulted in?

― songs and ballads of the bituminous miners (sanskrit), Thursday, 16 November 2006 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

No, but clearly Ichiro and Matsui are all PLUS PLUS PLUS.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 16 November 2006 16:48 (nineteen years ago)

Matsui never had to post!

here's the complete list:

Daisuke Matsuzaka, starting pitcher ($51,100,000; from Seibu Lions to the Boston Red Sox; posted November 2, 2006)
Shinji Mori relief pitcher ($1,000,000; from the Seibu Lions to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays; posted December 12, 2006)
Norihiro Nakamura, infielder (bid amount unknown; from the Kintetsu Buffaloes to the Los Angeles Dodgers; posted January 28, 2005)
Akinori Otsuka, relief pitcher ($300,000; from the Chunichi Dragons to the San Diego Padres; posted November 11, 2003)
Ramon Ramirez, pitcher ($300,050; from the Hiroshima Toyo Carp to the New York Yankees; posted February 9, 2003)
Kazuhisa Ishii, starting pitcher ($11,260,000 million; from the Yakult Swallows to the Los Angeles Dodgers; posted January 2, 2002)
Ichiro Suzuki, outfielder ($13,125,000; from Orix Blue Wave to the Seattle Mariners; posted November 9, 2000)
Alejandro Quezada, outfielder ($400,001; from the Hiroshima Toyo Carp to the Cincinnati Reds; posted February 2, 1999)

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 16 November 2006 16:59 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/how-much-is-matsuzaka-worth/

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:04 (nineteen years ago)

Otsuka is quite easily the biggest steal here in terms of VORP/$ posted... of course he has no star factor back in Japan so I'm not sure that.

that's an interesting article, moreso if you buy into all the assumptions.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah I just thought it was interesting. I'm not sure if they really know exactly what they are talking about.

I think in terms of extra revenue brought to the team, Ichiro has to be judged as the most lucrative of all these signings. Everything I've read indicates that Seattle has been hugely successful in Japan and almost all of that can be credited to Ichiro. I don't know if anyone else on this list has had that kind of effect for their team (obv Matsui has for that Yankees, but as has been pointed out he did not go through the posting process.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:44 (nineteen years ago)

Everything I've read indicates that Seattle has been hugely successful in Japan and almost all of that can be credited to Ichiro.

Possibly also Nintendo being a majority owner of the Mariners...

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 16 November 2006 17:49 (nineteen years ago)

More DM "value" talk:
http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=5712&PHPSESSID=51eeb32a44d69777895c42915156cf5a

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 16 November 2006 18:38 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah I just read that. It's a better piece too.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 16 November 2006 19:03 (nineteen years ago)

Possibly also Nintendo being a majority owner of the Mariners...

― jergins (jergins), Thursday, 16 November 2006 19:24 (nineteen years ago)

Also the proximity of Japan to Seattle and the large number of people of Japanese descent, etc. . .

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 16 November 2006 19:27 (nineteen years ago)

From MLB.com
Who is/are the owner(s) of the Seattle Mariners?
-- Colleen K., Seattle
The Baseball Club of Seattle, L.P., assumed control of the Mariners on July 1, 1992, upon approval of the Major League owners. The majority owner was Hiroshi Yamauchi (Nintendo founder) and the Board of Directors were John Ellis (chairman), Minoru Arakawa, Chris Larson, Howard Lincoln, John McCaw, Frank Shrontz and Craig Watjen.

There currently are 16 minority owners, all of whom reside in the Seattle area, and the Board of Directors are: Lincoln, Ellis (Chairman Emeritus), Arakawa, Larson, Wayne Perry, Shrontz and Watjen. Lincoln was selected as chairman and CEO on Sept. 27, 1999, and Yamauchi recently transferred his stock in the franchise to Nintendo of America.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 16 November 2006 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

I think he's asking what effect Nintendo being part owner has on Ichiro + Seattle revenue streams, but I could be wrong.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 16 November 2006 19:33 (nineteen years ago)

yeah.

and also

no Japanese person gave a shit about the Mariners until Ichiro showed up, and if/when he leaves they will resume not giving a shit

― jergins (jergins), Thursday, 16 November 2006 19:38 (nineteen years ago)

I think he's asking what effect Nintendo being part owner has on Ichiro + Seattle revenue streams, but I could be wrong.
-- Alex in SF (clobberthesauru...), Today 11:33 AM. (Alex in SF)

Had the owner of the Mariners been anyone other than Yamauchi, the Mariners would have never acquired Ichiro.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 16 November 2006 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

theo must feel a little sheepish about overbidding by $10-$12 million

Boston Red Sox: $51.1M
New York Mets: $39.0M

(if those competitive bid numbers can be trusted)

― songs and ballads of the bituminous miners (sanskrit), Thursday, 16 November 2006 19:59 (nineteen years ago)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/061120/ids_photos_sp/r3393916422.jpg

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Monday, 20 November 2006 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

The full gallery:

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=daisuke+matsuzaka&c=news_photos

He wears a lot of Prada (including the manbag!). I have a sweater very similar to that jacket (at a fraction of the cost, I'd imagine).

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Monday, 20 November 2006 18:17 (nineteen years ago)

i realize i'd never seen a picture of him. he's way more chubby-cheeked than i imagined.

― jergins (jergins), Monday, 20 November 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20061120/capt.014e7e38ca3b441aabacc7f414a88377.poeple_daisuke_matsuzaka_cajh113.jpg

you see, dai-kun, it's really quite simple. all this can be yours, the money, the women, the cars... all i ask is for your soul.

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Monday, 20 November 2006 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

Is he an ancestor of Buck Bokai?

― Pamplaxico Polancobon (Andy_K), Monday, 20 November 2006 20:47 (nineteen years ago)

Boras doesnt look nearly as evil as I pictured him. Douchey, yes. Evil, no.

― Stuh-du-du-du-du-du-du-denka (jingleberries), Monday, 20 November 2006 21:13 (nineteen years ago)

ctrl-f irabu

― get yr coat luv uve jes bin pulld (Adrian Langston), Tuesday, 21 November 2006 02:10 (nineteen years ago)

blah blah blah....

Irabu pre-MLB Japan stats:
ERA: 3.41
WHIP: 1.24
K/9: 9.08
K/BB: 2.30

Irabu pre-MLB Japan stats:
ERA: 5.15
WHIP: 1.40
K/9: 7.11
K/BB: 2.32

so.... using only Irabu's variances as a base index (and there's people out there who use much more sophisticated indices based on databases of ALL japanese players' performance variance but this is a worst case scenario (Sorry Irabu!)):

Matsuzaka pre-MLB Japan stats:
ERA: 2.95
WHIP: 1.17
K/9: 8.69
K/BB: 2.70

DM Forecasted MLB stats using Irabu index:
ERA: 4.45
WHIP: 1.32
K/9: 6.81
K/BB: 2.72

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Tuesday, 21 November 2006 03:46 (nineteen years ago)

it's the pudge on him, isn't it

― jergins (jergins), Tuesday, 21 November 2006 06:45 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gkn4bAdHx0

If he can really drink a beer in three seconds, we have nothing to worry about. (Warning: Hoobastank.)

― govern yourself accordingly (dayan), Friday, 2 February 2007 16:22 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Will Carroll:

The gyroball is something I’ve been following and talking about here for four years. Everyone else is on the bandwagon lately, especially with the mystery surrounding Daisuke Matsuzaka. (Does he throw it? Answer: yes, but not in games. He’s a noted tinkerer and perfectionist. His answer at the press conference was part humor, part Japanese vagueness, and part playing on the fact that few know the gyro is multiple pitches.)

Jeff Passan is back after being one of the first to mainstream the gyro. In this Yahoo article, he’s met the creator, asked Barry Bonds about seeing it (and popping out), and actually thrown the pitch. I’m jealous.

Lee Jenkins at the New York Times has much the same story from a different angle. Now that the gyro’s been on the front page of the Times, can we quit talking about whether it exists or not?

There’s another article coming, one I’ve been involved in, that I think might answer all the questions, including why is Will’s gyroball so much different that the one Tezuka explains and teaches to Jeff? I don’t want to ruin anyone’s thunder, so I’ll continue to be quiet about this article until it runs.

So to summarize: Yes, it exists. No, it doesn’t move in two directions (and I never said it did.) Yes, I really screwed up when I thought it was a shuuto. No, I won’t teach it to you over the ‘net. Yes, I think a major league pitcher will throw it in a game this year.

And yes, I agree with Tezuka. In 10 years, we’ll look back on this and wonder what the big deal was.

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 22 February 2007 15:30 (nineteen years ago)

Isn't that from 20 years ago (Hot Stove Time)?

― David R., Thursday, 22 February 2007 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 22 February 2007 16:08 (nineteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

A video of the purported Gyroball:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kNRhCzUffM

It was explained to me as a pitch that looks like a fastball at release but behaves as a slider.

According to Wikipedia, it was developed by a team of Japanese scientists working round-the-clock, a la the Manhattan Project.

― felicity, Friday, 16 March 2007 21:39 (nineteen years ago)

I just found this picture from 2 years ago that I took at a Saitama train station (not far from where the Lions play):

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/175/426340212_da0f39306a_b.jpg

― Steve Shasta, Monday, 19 March 2007 05:19 (nineteen years ago)

Pretty solid start today:

5 2/3IP
7 KKKKKKKs
1 hit
1 bb
1 hbp (lead-off HBP scored on the 2-out single)
7 ground outs:3 fly outs

His spring training stats so far:

ERA: 2.84
WHIP: 0.95
K:BB: 13K:2BB

― Steve Shasta, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

Yup he's sick.

― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 20:13 (nineteen years ago)

Here's the SI coverstory:

The Riddle

With an array of pitches as sublime and mesmerizing as haiku, $100 million import Daisuke Matsuzaka could tip the American League balance of power to the Red Sox -- and explode the old myths about pampering pitchers

Posted: Tuesday March 20, 2007 9:59AM; Updated: Wednesday March 21, 2007 2:15PM

Boston's coaches are seeking a balance between Matsuzaka's iron-man training regimen -- no ice on the arm, 300-foot long tosses, lengthy bullpen sessions after a start -- and American notions of how to keep pitchers healthy.

The cherubic face of Daisuke Matsuzaka bears a mysterious contentment, the calm self-assuredness of a kid who knows something you don't, who knows the questions before the exam is given. It's as if the pitching gods have let him in on a great secret, and it's safe with the chosen one.

The look is there even at the end of an exhausting day, in the cramped clubhouse of what the Boston Red Sox call their player development complex, a tract of green fields carved among industrial eyesores in a section of Fort Myers, Fla. Matsuzaka, 26, is still wearing his baseball undershirt and the rest of his uniform, some six hours after he dressed and long after many of his teammates have hit the back nine. Boston's new Japanese import put in the equivalent of heavy lifting for this early in spring training: 80 pitches from flat ground, 50 pitches off the bullpen mound and 50 pitches of live batting practice, followed by an hour of autographs, two press conferences (one to English-speaking journalists and one to the 150 Japanese journalists on hand expressly to record his every word, pitch and breath) and a lengthy sit-down interview with a Japanese television network.

What strikes you now about Matsuzaka, once you get beyond the knowing countenance, is that after all that throwing, never did he bother to ice his arm or shoulder. In major league locker rooms, ice packs are ubiquitous appendages for pitchers, who wrap their shoulder or elbow or both, the better to calm muscles, ligaments and tendons that have been stressed by the unnatural act of throwing a baseball. Relievers are known to ice after facing only one batter in a game.

Not Matsuzaka. He didn't ice after he threw 103 pitches in the bullpen the second time he stepped on a mound in spring training in 2007, more than twice the number of even the heartiest of his fellow Red Sox pitchers. He didn't ice after one of his twice-weekly 20-minute long-toss sessions, when he throws from the rightfield foul pole to the leftfield wall -- a distance of about 300 feet -- while taking only one step to load his arm. (Most pitchers throw half that distance.) In past years with the Seibu Lions, he wouldn't ice even after his frequent 300-pitch bullpen sessions, a program that would have been grounds for dismissal for any major league pitching coach who allowed it.

Then you reflect on the 250 pitches he threw in a 17-inning complete game in high school -- the apex of a stretch in which he threw 54 innings in 11 days -- and the 189 pitches he threw on Opening Day in 2003, the 160 pitches in his second start of the '05 season, the 145 pitches in his penultimate start for the Lions, the 588 innings he threw for Seibu before he turned 21 (Oakland ace Rich Harden, 25, still hasn't logged that many big league innings) and the eight games last year in which he threw at least 130 pitches -- more such games than all major league pitchers combined.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 22 March 2007 21:32 (nineteen years ago)

It's all unheard-of stuff Stateside. But it is explained by the concept of doryoku, or unflagging effort, which in Japanese baseball is seen as a prime virtue. The great home run hero Sadaharu Oh valued doryoku so highly that he included the word in every autograph.

You ask Matsuzaka, through an interpreter, about using ice, the standard American precaution, and what you get first is that knowing smile and a little laugh.

Then he says, "No, never."

Matsuzaka throws eight known pitches -- eight! -- and is tougher than Sanskrit for hitters to read because he has the confidence to throw any of them at any time and can put all of them in an open mailbox from 20 paces. He has the equipment to be the greatest rookie pitching phenomenon since Dwight Gooden in 1984, greater certainly than his forebearer Hideo Nomo, who for all the cross-cultural excitement he generated in 1995 won only 13 games.

More important, Matsuzaka is a potential agent of change. It's his throwing regimen, rather than his place of birth, that makes him the ultimate foreigner to major league baseball. If he succeeds in the U.S., he could transform the accepted industry practice of overprotecting pitchers. The system guarantees diminishing returns: Despite advances in medicine, nutrition and training, teams work pitchers less than ever before and yet pay them more.

"After being part of this for three years," former big league manager Bobby Valentine says by e-mail from Japan, where he's the manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines, "I am convinced we do a bad job of coaching in the U.S. for pitchers."

Fact is, Matsuzaka would not be this Matsuzaka if he had been born in the States. Says Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, "I'm not even sure he would have been drafted out of high school, as a 5'11" righthander who was pushed like that at such a young age."

Matsuzaka represents a clash of cultures that goes well beyond the standard laundry list of adjustments involving food, language, customs and entertainment. (Good luck explaining sports talk radio to him after the Sox blow a game late to the Yanks.) What happens when a pitcher from the East, this good at this age, meets Western baseball philosophy? What happens when he encounters the pitch-count clicker, that all-powerful totem worshiped by American managers and coaches? What does manager Terry Francona do when Matsuzaka has thrown 120 pitches into the eighth inning? How much do the Red Sox Americanize the pitcher?

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 22 March 2007 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

Better still, is it possible that we can learn more from Matsuzaka than he can from us?

"You better believe it," says Eddie Bane, the scouting director for the Los Angeles Angels. "I think we're going to have to take a look at our system. It's a slap in the face [to Japan] if we don't. And they won the World Baseball Classic, don't forget.

"Their philosophy is, If you're a pitcher, you need to throw. It makes sense to me. We're training our pitchers to throw less. And nobody wants to try anything different. If [Matsuzaka] is this good, we might want to take a look at it."

The Red Sox are betting $103.1 million -- including an industry-rattling bid of $51.1 million just to secure his negotiating rights -- that Matsuzaka is not only the real deal but also will swing the balance of power in the American League East for the next six years, the length of his $52 million contract. The question is not whether Matsuzaka is good enough; it's whether, following his most un-American training regimen while facing deeper lineups and starting games more frequently, his arm holds up.

In January, Matsuzaka sat in the contemporary splendor of the California office of his agent, Scott Boras, and admitted, "If there's any one thing I'm particularly worried about, it's the injury [factor]. My clear intention is to play the entire season healthy.

"Looking at the players that are truly successful, you see the durability and long careers. Those are the players I respect and look up to. I hope to become a player like that."

The old pond
A frog jumps in
The sound of water
-- Matsuo Bashoø

Matsuzaka's pitching motion is an elegant haiku, beauty captured in three parts separated by two pauses that he varies from pitch to pitch. He swings his hands over his head, pauses, lowers his hands as he begins his turn on the rubber, pauses again, then unleashes all the stored energy in a violently quick motion to the plate in which he drops so low that his right knee sometimes scrapes the dirt of the mound. It's like nothing taught in America.

Look around spring training mounds. Pitcher after American pitcher is throwing with a one-size-fits-all delivery largely patterned on Roger Clemens, whom amateur and professional coaches have adopted as their template. There is no swinging of the arms away from the body when the ball is in the glove. The hands remain close to the chest, as if winding up in a phone booth. The pitcher stays tall over the rubber and falls on a downward plane toward the hitter.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 22 March 2007 21:34 (nineteen years ago)

The compact "tall and fall" delivery is technically sound, a Sousa march with no wasted elements. Matsuzaka's free-flowing, drop-and-drive delivery is improvisational, like live jazz. As American coaches would see it, Matsuzaka is coloring outside the lines when he turns his front shoulder slightly away from the hitter and swings his hands and left foot slightly past parallel with the rubber. But in Japan, pitching styles are less rigorously enforced, and Matsuzaka learned from watching.

"As a child I spent a lot of time imitating [Japanese] professional baseball players," he said. "Over time, putting the pieces together, that led to my own form being revealed. Not that it resembles any particular pitcher, but something that evolved naturally through practice."

Now Matsuzaka is the frog in the most famous haiku of Japan's most famous poet. He is hitting the water of the old pond that is major league baseball with an unmistakable splash. Matsuzaka grew up dreaming of such a jump, a wish practically unheard of for the generations of Japanese children before him. When it came to baseball, Japan embraced the island mentality, enchanted by its own leagues and its own rich history and unwilling to risk the possibility of its players' failing in the major leagues. Then Nomo jumped in 1995, did well, and a bridge was built. Matsuzaka was in ninth grade then, with his eye on America.

"Though I am not aware of all the details leading up to his departure from Japan," Matsuzaka says of Nomo, "there was some controversy, and in general it can be said it was not a very healthy departure. That said, to see him single-handedly face this brand-new, challenging environment left a big impression on me and was inspiring.

"As for the risk of [Nomo's] failure, as someone who actually had seen his performance in Japan and seen how great he had been, there wasn't even a thought in my mind that he would fail. That's the way I was thinking in the ninth grade."

Matsuzaka's own legend was born in 1998, when as a senior at Yokohama High he pitched in the famed Koshien tournament, Japan's equivalent of March Madness. Clay Daniel, working at the time for the Arizona Diamondbacks, watched the performance. "I saw him throw nine innings, then nine innings, then 17 innings, come in and close a game for one inning, take a day off, then throw a no-hitter in the championship game," says Daniel, now supervisor of international scouting for the Angels. "In Japan the pitcher wears number 1, the catcher number 2, and so on. He was number 1. After I saw him pitch nine innings he was out there again the next day, and I was thinking, 'Can that be the same little runt wearing number 1?'

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 22 March 2007 21:34 (nineteen years ago)

"He was only 5'10". But he threw 90-plus with a nasty hammer. He was throwing 90 to 95 at the beginning of the tournament and around 85 by the end, but nobody could hit him because his command was amazing. I nicknamed him Elvis after that. People would go crazy when they saw him walking around, wanting to take his picture, get his autograph."

Arizona offered him $3.3 million to sign (and Colorado more than $3 million), but Daniel says he couldn't compete with the offer from Seibu, which he estimates at about $15 million plus assorted perks. Matsuzaka was an immediate sensation in the Japan leagues. At age 18 in 1999 he threw 180 innings, had a 2.60 ERA and struck out Ichiro Suzuki three times in one game. The Japanese television network NHK produced a 50-minute program that year entitled Eighteen-Year-Old Daisuke Matsuzaka: The Super Rookie's Spirit and Technique.

Over his eight seasons with Seibu, Matsuzaka compiled a 108-60 record with a 2.95 ERA while averaging a complete game every 2.8 starts. (The major league average in 2006 was a complete game every 33.8 starts.) His 13 complete games last year were more than the staffs of all but one major league team had.

Was he ever removed from a game because of a high pitch count?

"No," he says.

Did coaches keep a pitch-count clicker in the dugout for him?

"No."

Did Matsuzaka ever have a pitch limit?

"I had three managers and various coaches in Japan," he says. "All of them were operating with the understanding that this guy can throw any number of pitches unless I requested to be taken out because I was tired or I was hit very badly. Those were the only two reasons they would pull me."

By 2005, in need of a bigger challenge, Matsuzaka was eager to move on to the majors. Seibu acquiesced to his wishes after the '06 season by officially posting his availability to major league teams, a system agreed upon by Japanese owners and MLB to create an open market for Japanese players (preventing the kind of deal that gave the San Diego Padres exclusive rights to Hideki Irabu in 1997). Teams entered blind bids for the rights to Matsuzaka, the winner paying that amount to Seibu upon signing the pitcher.

Early speculation had the top fee coming in at $20 million to $30 million, roughly twice the $13 million Seattle put up in 2000 for the rights to Ichiro. Glowing reports from Pacific Rim scouts Craig Shipley and Jon Deeble persuaded the Red Sox that they had to have Matsuzaka. Privately they were terrified the Yankees would get him and build a dominant rotation with Matsuzaka; 26-year-old Chien Ming Wang, a 19-game winner last year; and Phil Hughes, who at 20 is considered baseball's best pitching prospect.

Red Sox executives figured New York was capable of bidding more than $40 million. But unbeknownst to them, Yankees G.M. Brian Cashman, who'd gained control of baseball operations, had been pushing a philosophical change to improve player development and curb the team's lavish spending. Cashman bid $33 million (and told people afterward that he felt uncomfortable going even that high).

Unlike the Yankees, whose bid was based largely on Matsuzaka's perceived value, the Red Sox were playing the game. They talked themselves into a $50 million bid as a hedge against the Yankees. Then owner John Henry bumped it to $51.1 million, for extra wiggle room and the uniqueness of the number. "We had to decide what he would be worth as an unrestricted free agent, then get the total price to fall in that range," Epstein says. "Two forces were at work. First, if you don't win the post, you don't get the player. We had strong indications that he didn't want to go back to Japan and would be motivated to sign. And second, the posting money is not counted against the luxury tax."

Henry and Red Sox president Larry Lucchino walked into the offices of Major League Baseball International with their sealed bid five minutes before the deadline. They promptly ran into New York Mets G.M. Omar Minaya and his assistant, Tony Bernazard, who were hand-delivering their own sealed bid: $39 million.

"I'm sure the Mets felt like they had the winning bid," Lucchino said. "The next thing you know, when the bid was announced, everybody was saying, 'The Red Sox bid what? Oh, my god.'"

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 22 March 2007 21:34 (nineteen years ago)

As if to justify the $103.1 million expenditure, talk in the Boston front office quickly turned to the ancillary benefits of adding a foreign superstar. Lucchino spoke of "expanding the Red Sox' footprint in Asia." There would be new advertising partnerships with Japanese companies and more merchandise to sell. But outside of the sales made in shops owned by the Red Sox, Boston gets the same 1/30th cut of the profits on Matsuzaka merchandise as every other team, including the Yankees. Club sources put Matsuzaka's direct economic impact on the Red Sox at about $3 million annually. That figure includes the $900,000 sponsorship from a Japanese electronics company for a dedicated Matsuzaka interview area, in Fenway and on the road, with the company logo plastered on the background.

First and foremost, though, the Red Sox got Matsuzaka for his arm. They judged him to be far better than Barry Zito, the free-agent lefty who would sign with the Giants for a greater average annual salary ($18 million) over more years (seven) despite being two years older than Matsuzaka. Publicly, the Red Sox are trying to walk a precarious line between cashing in on the excitement of his arrival and tempering expectations. Privately, they believe he can have as big an impact as two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana has had in Minnesota. On those magic nights when Matsuzaka has all of his pitches working, the Sox envision 15-strikeout games. They even believe he'll have better movement and velocity than he did in Japan, because major league baseballs are slightly larger, with bigger seams.

Like Santana, Matsuzaka has a power pitcher's fastball (typically about 94 mph, though his four-seamer is relatively straight and will be prone to homers) but a finesse pitcher's touch and intellect. Sox pitching coach John Farrell estimates that only about 55% of Matsuzaka's pitches are fastballs, well below the major league average of about 66%. Matsuzaka talks of his "second nature" ability to change movement on pitches by varying the pressure of his fingertips on the baseball, in the manner of Greg Maddux.

By his own count, Matsuzaka throws a four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball, a cut fastball, a shuuto (hard sinker with left to right cut), a curveball, a slider, a splitter and a changeup that the Red Sox regard as his nastiest pitch because he imparts a rare screwball action to it. "No gyroball," Matsuzaka volunteers, referring to the near-mythical pitch with a spiral spin that often has been attributed to him.

Asked what he enjoys most about pitching, Matsuzaka responds, "The ability to try to outthink and try new things against the batters."

"He has an excellent chance at winning at least 15 games, maybe 20," says veteran outfielder Karim Garcia, who played against Matsuzaka in Japan in 2005 and '06 and returned this spring to battle for a roster spot with Philadelphia. "He's going to be like Pedro [Martinez]: He throws every pitch for a strike. [But] he can throw 140 pitches [a game], no problem. After six or seven innings he's just getting warmed up. The closer he gets to the end of the game, the stronger he gets.

"Watching him pitch over there, it was like he wasn't challenged. It was like it was too easy for him."

Says Matsuzaka, "Ever since elementary school I realized this is where the top level of baseball is played, and that has been with me ever since: to play at the top level in the world."

Hub's opening day
Signs read: WE LOVE DAISUKE
Manny asks, "Who's that?"
-- Yanks fan in Boston
(winner of haiku contest at yanksfan vs. soxfan website)

In the Red Sox' signing of Matsuzaka, one moment was more anxious for Boston than the anticipation of the winning bid's announcement: the wait for the results of the MRI on his right arm. Just about every picture taken of a pitcher's shoulder and arm will reveal clues, however small, about the strain of pitching -- tiny tears, adhesions, loose bodies, the detritus of the craft. The Baltimore Orioles once backed out of a deal with Aaron Sele because they didn't like what they saw on his MRI. Sele has gone on to pitch more than 1,000 innings since then.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 22 March 2007 21:35 (nineteen years ago)

When Matsuzaka's pictures came back, the Red Sox were shocked at what they saw. The MRIs were whistle-clean.

"He's a freak," Daniel says, "one of those rare guys that doesn't come around often."

Says Valentine, "I think he will do fine if he doesn't become Americanized. I think they are smart guys in Boston and they 'get it.' But there will be a time when everyone will be writing that he needs to throw more fastballs. The reason so many pitchers throw so many fastballs is because they can't throw their other pitches over the plate with quality. This is one of this kid's strengths."

Farrell, the pitching coach, met with Matsuzaka in January to establish the rough guidelines of a training program. The Red Sox, he said, would make all their resources available to him, and Matsuzaka could adopt whatever elements he chose. "It's been about 80 percent his program, 20 percent ours," Farrell says.

For instance, before Farrell allowed the 103-pitch bullpen session, he won a compromise by having Matsuzaka skip his normal 300-foot toss session the day before. Francona says Matsuzaka will not be throwing in the bullpen after he has been removed from a start, a practice the pitcher sometimes followed in Japan. "I'd be looking for a job the next day [if I let him]," says the manager.

Why don't American pitchers throw as much as Japanese pitchers, or even as much as they used to? The rise of the offensive power game in the majors has made pitching more strenuous than ever; the degree of difficulty in getting through lineups today is much higher than it was 25 years ago. But one club that studied the drop in the American pitching workload found the tipping point to be manager Billy Martin's 1980 A's. Rick Langford, Mike Norris, Matt Keough, Steve McCatty and Brian Kingman -- all of them in their 20s -- completed 93 of their 159 starts that season. Each broke down in subsequent years. The media attention given to Martin's strategy and the pitchers' injuries sent a shiver through managers and clubs. No one wanted to be labeled an arm-killer. A new conservatism grew that eventually led to the development of the specialized modern bullpen, which picks up the innings that once belonged to starters.

Further, as orthopedists such as Frank Jobe, the pioneer of Tommy John surgery, advanced the field of sports medicine, baseball received additional support for the practice of treading lightly with pitchers. Says noted orthopedist Lewis Yokum, "My philosophy, going back to training with Frank Jobe, is that a pitcher has only so many bullets in his arm.

"What we see from a lot of draft picks out of California and Florida is that they get hurt because they're throwing year-round. I like to say, 'Give me a snowfall.' Let them have an off-season."

Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson discourages Little Leaguers with strong arms from pitching at all. He has frowned on his major league pitchers' throwing to bases in routine spring training drills because such throws run counter to the "saving bullets" philosophy.

Managers also know the media's "pitch-count police" will set off alarms if a starter is allowed to throw more than 120 pitches in a game. Baseball Prospectus, for instance, tabulates the ominous-sounding Pitcher Abuse Points, which boils a pitcher's health risk down to a numerical score based on pitch counts. The Diamondbacks' Livan Hernandez rang up the most points last season, 42. (He also led the majors in 2004 and 2005 -- and has never been on the disabled list.) Matsuzaka blew away that total with 176 points in Japan last year, and that was down from a whopping 284 in 2005.

Valentine, who formerly managed the Texas Rangers and the Mets, admits that he too coddled pitchers in the majors, though it took understanding the Japanese throwing philosophy for him to see the error of that accepted practice. "The Japanese pitchers have superior mechanics," Valentine says. "They also have wonderful balance and core and foundation strength. They work the small muscle groups, and [Americans] work the large ones. The large ones make you look better.

Valentine allows most of his starters to throw 200 bullpen pitches a day in the spring. "They have been doing it forever and have not broken down," he says. On the day before a starter takes the mound, he'll throw 90 pitches in the pen and, Valentine says, "have [his] best fastball in the ninth inning" the next day.

"What we feel we know in the States is that fatigue and bad mechanics lead to the operating table," Valentine says. "Yet we don't throw enough to counterbalance fatigue, and the ideas some of the coaches have there are just plain wrong."

Still, the Red Sox and Boras are concerned that pitching in the majors, with a more grueling schedule and deeper lineups, will exact a toll. Matsuzaka was part of a six-man rotation in Japan, where every Monday is an off day, thus making him a once-a-week pitcher. (Last season he made only one start with five days' rest and the remaining 24 with at least six days' rest; he'll normally get only four days off with Boston.) And working on less recovery time, he'll most likely have to work harder to get through lineups that have more power than those in Japan. "He was so dominant in a lot of the games [in Japan]," says Farrell, "he didn't tax himself."

Says Lucchino, "We're trying to take a more Japanese-like philosophy [while looking] at the long-term perspective."

Says Boras, "The greatest concern is ensuring his health not just this year but over the life of the contract and beyond. The history of the Japanese [starting] pitchers who have come here is of concern."

Nomo had three good years for the Dodgers before he was traded at 29 and released at 30, triggering a journeyman's career. Irabu was done at 33. Kaz Ishii was done at 32.

"I'm going to do my best, doryoku, to keep my pitch count low and be able to pitch into the later innings," Matsuzaka says. "I personally feel very ready to accept the major league system."

Says teammate Curt Schilling, who's entering his 20th season, "He is a big league ace in the making. The question is, Does he throw his last pitch at 31 or at 39?"

Matsuzaka, the eight-pitch wonder with the diversionary delivery, is a riddle to big league hitters. The even greater puzzle, however, is what happens when two pitching philosophies collide, when doryoku meets the pitch-count clicker? Even the great Matsuzaka, for all the assuredness upon his face, cannot know the answer until time slowly reveals it.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 22 March 2007 21:35 (nineteen years ago)

Their philosophy is, If you're a pitcher, you need to throw. It makes sense to me.

― G00blar, Friday, 23 March 2007 11:42 (nineteen years ago)

Nate Silver: First time I've watched Matsuzaka this spring. Two things jump out:

1. He looks more like Greg Maddux than a true power pitcher out there, not that this is necessarily a bad thing.

2. He looks pretty darn different pitching out of the wind-up and the stretch. This isn't necessarily a bad thing either, but it will be interesting to see how his splits play out.

― Dr Morbius, Monday, 26 March 2007 20:41 (nineteen years ago)

1. He looks more like Greg Maddux than a true power pitcher out there, not that this is necessarily a bad thing.

I'm not saying I'm smart or anything, but I had the same "hmm, Maddux" thought today.

― Rock Hardy, Monday, 26 March 2007 21:07 (nineteen years ago)

He had five walks today, no? That doesn't seem very Maddux-esque (or very Matsuzaka-esque either actually.)

― Alex in SF, Monday, 26 March 2007 21:17 (nineteen years ago)

i watched his start this afternoon - his control was real shaky, and francona said as much. still, i'm stoked!!

― cankles, Tuesday, 27 March 2007 02:17 (nineteen years ago)

That's why they call it practice, dudes. Pitchers still just stretching out, finding a good groove. They're not necessarily trying to "go after" guys.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 29 March 2007 17:06 (nineteen years ago)

That last start was very Doc Ellis-esque (5 IP of no-hit ball with 6Ks, 5BBs and 1 HBP).

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 29 March 2007 23:42 (nineteen years ago)

And it begins...

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 5 April 2007 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

1st batter...base hit

― francisF, Thursday, 5 April 2007 18:25 (nineteen years ago)

They should trade him.

― mattbot, Thursday, 5 April 2007 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

not looking so sharp.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 5 April 2007 18:30 (nineteen years ago)

3 ground balls vs. 1 walk (although against teahen, ex-Moneyball A's prospect).

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 5 April 2007 18:33 (nineteen years ago)

(although currently a royal)

― The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall, Thursday, 5 April 2007 18:38 (nineteen years ago)

i think they were counting on him chasing a couple of those, i think he looks pretty sharp. but his moneyball skills were too strong for the dice-k

― francisF, Thursday, 5 April 2007 18:41 (nineteen years ago)

the royals announcer just refered to matsuzaka as "dice-k matsui."

― maura, Thursday, 5 April 2007 19:36 (nineteen years ago)

At least it wasn't die-sookie matsui or something, but wow.

I'm watching the stat tracker... 2 hits in 5 innings? seems aiight to me.

― Will M., Thursday, 5 April 2007 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

Just got out of a jam, getting the ever-so-dangerous Tony Pena Jr. to ground back to the pitcher. Through 5IP: 78 pitches, 6K, 3H, 1BB, 15 purported gyroballs, countless mispronounciations.

― David R., Thursday, 5 April 2007 19:51 (nineteen years ago)

FWIW: all three of the hits were ground balls through the infield when the count had 2 strikes.

even the BB was a set-up to the inning-ending DP.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 5 April 2007 19:55 (nineteen years ago)

Holy crap he set up a DP by WALKING a guy? That's good!

― David R., Thursday, 5 April 2007 19:57 (nineteen years ago)

drew with the dinger

― sanskrit, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:00 (nineteen years ago)

nobody fucks w/ dejesus

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:01 (nineteen years ago)

Gordon's hit wasn't a grounder, was it? everybody's making excuses for Dice-K, but at this point, i think Grein-K is having the better start

― francisF, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:08 (nineteen years ago)

You know, that Grienke ain't looking so bad, either. Tho I'm only looking @ the box score.

[prescient xpost]

― David R., Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

15 purported gyroballs, countless mispronounciations

Is it supposed to be pronounced like the sandwich?

― Andy K, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

*boom boom*

― Andy K, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

Did I ever tell you you were my gyro, Andy K?

― David R., Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:16 (nineteen years ago)

I would like to say, before anything happens, that I feel it's a DICEY proposition (wokka wokka) to send my man out there to face the Royals in the 7th.

― David R., Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

damn

― rps, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:22 (nineteen years ago)

David R.,

go back and read the SI article I copy/pasted above, specifically about pitchcounts and babying pitchers.

Steve

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:25 (nineteen years ago)

Wakeboarder,

It wasn't about the pitch count. It was about him struggling in the 6th. That he had no problem in the 7th, tho, means I know dookiestain. Eat your vegetables.

Mom

― David R., Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:27 (nineteen years ago)

Alex Gordon's defence is not too impressive this game

― francisF, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:35 (nineteen years ago)

For reals!

A couple singles to third (Manny?) and some botched plays, even the error on Lugo's steal was charged to the catcher but that looked like it should have been Gordon's.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:43 (nineteen years ago)

yep

― francisF, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

(on that last point)

― francisF, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

i agree on all those points, but i didn't have sound & i assumed the first error was his

― francisF, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

era: 1.29
whip: 1.00

pitching:
7 innings
108 pitches
74 strikes (69%)
1 run (earned)
6 hits (4 singles, a double, a homerun)
1 walk
10 strikeouts
5 groundballs:5 fly balls

defense:
turned 1 double play
1 runner caught stealing
2 ground outs
4 outs in 3 chances

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:56 (nineteen years ago)

Nice game. Greinke was impressive too.

― Alex in SF, Thursday, 5 April 2007 20:58 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=310

Ouch Nate not exactly Nostradamus, eh.

― Alex in SF, Thursday, 5 April 2007 21:00 (nineteen years ago)

Posts like that need to have comments turned on.

― mattbot, Thursday, 5 April 2007 21:05 (nineteen years ago)

Amen on Greinke... he turned Big Papi into Chichi Chiquito.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 5 April 2007 21:13 (nineteen years ago)

w/r/t: Nate Silver... uh... well, to his defense, he's probably never seen DM pitch before. DM usually has an... interesting 1st inning and then gets better and better towards the end.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 5 April 2007 21:16 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Red-Sox-Fans.article.jpg

― rps, Thursday, 5 April 2007 21:31 (nineteen years ago)

Wilbon is impressed, but not stunned, because a performance like that is so common.

― Andy K, Thursday, 5 April 2007 22:36 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=311

Nate eats his words.

― Alex in SF, Friday, 6 April 2007 00:12 (nineteen years ago)

mlb.com is buying into the hype with a Matsuzaka page:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/matsuzaka/index.jsp

― Steve Shasta, Friday, 6 April 2007 06:31 (nineteen years ago)

Plate Umpire Jeff Nelson's impression:

"His ball moves funny. To me, it was like working a knuckleball pitcher. His ball definitely moves differently. It will break every which way, like I haven't seen out of anyone else's hand. You just don't know. That's why I liken it to knuckleball pitchers."

― Steve Shasta, Friday, 6 April 2007 06:35 (nineteen years ago)

He's doctoring. Check his pockets for broken chopsticks.

― David R., Friday, 6 April 2007 13:43 (nineteen years ago)

wasabi!

― j.q higgins, Friday, 6 April 2007 13:51 (nineteen years ago)

Fish eggs!

― David R., Friday, 6 April 2007 13:57 (nineteen years ago)

Gentleman, if Daisuke was African American or Hispanic would it be PC to replace these terms with parallel terms?

Just sayin...

― Steve Shasta, Friday, 6 April 2007 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

^^^gentlemen^^^ ugh it's early.

― Steve Shasta, Friday, 6 April 2007 14:44 (nineteen years ago)

It wouldn't be PC, no, but I would do it, because I have a tasteless sense of humor, & I always neglect to convey the weary & knowing sarcasm through which such lollergags would be conveyed.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go eat some mayonnaise.

― David R., Friday, 6 April 2007 15:01 (nineteen years ago)

i thought the point was to put words in the umpire's mouth?

― j.q higgins, Friday, 6 April 2007 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

Actually, I was trying to make disparaging remarks about the Japanese people.

― David R., Friday, 6 April 2007 15:31 (nineteen years ago)

Note that I'm not accusing anyone of anything! "Just sayin"!

― Steve Shasta, Friday, 6 April 2007 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

As ILB's resident slant, I found the above exchange deeply offensive lolomgwtf. ^_^

― Leee, Friday, 6 April 2007 16:14 (nineteen years ago)

On Wednesday, DM will make his first start at Fenway. The first pitch of the game will be Daisuke Matsuzaka vs. Ichiro Suzuki.

They're no strangers, they've faced each other 35 times in 1999-2000, with Ichiro getting 8 hits (.235 average), walking once, and hitting a homerun once.

Here's a video of some of the highlights, including the first matchup between then-18 year old Daisuke vs. Ichiro, and Ichiro fanning three times:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_uDefoJ7hK0

― Steve Shasta, Monday, 9 April 2007 18:29 (nineteen years ago)

Wednesday's matchup is now Dice-K vs. King Felix!

― G00blar, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 08:59 (nineteen years ago)

And it will be on ESPN2.

― Andy K, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 11:02 (nineteen years ago)

um, wow. that's pretty cool.

― j.q higgins, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 13:00 (nineteen years ago)

wow, I guess I'll scuttle my Zodiac plans again.

who will Steve Shasta be pulling for??

― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 19:29 (nineteen years ago)

Himself? :)

― David R., Tuesday, 10 April 2007 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

Looks like Seattle's offense didn't make the flight from Cleveland...

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

Or their pitching for that matter... (140 pitches through 4 innings!)

What's King Felix's line vs. Boston?

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 19:58 (nineteen years ago)

This is King Felix's only game against Boston (in Seattle):
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore;_ylt=Aq3rbHcyjIoyyke25vqPU.6FCLcF?gid=260722112

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 20:02 (nineteen years ago)

Guys I'm not as much of a rooter/puller, I mean there's guys I like and don't like but I'm just a fan of the game.

That said I like Daisuke, I've seen him pitch a few times in person and I'm positive he'll be successful in the majors, he made much stronger of an impression than King Felix did when I watched him. Both are great pitchers with amazing stuff, I'd gamble the game will feature great pitching (with a couple dingers, which are both pitchers' achilles heels).

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 20:08 (nineteen years ago)

rooter/puller

Matos to thread!

― Andy K, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 20:29 (nineteen years ago)

So until today, Ichiro has only struck out three times against 2 pitchers: then 18-y/o Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Hudson (in 2003).

But coincidentally enough today, Josh Beckett became the third pitcher to strike Ichiro out three times.

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 20:40 (nineteen years ago)

King Felix will have had 9 days rest.

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 21:34 (nineteen years ago)

Last one to 200 pitches wins then.

― mattbot, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

Ichiro on Matsuzaka: "I hope he arouses the fire that's dormant in the innermost recesses of my soul"

― Garrett Martin, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 23:10 (nineteen years ago)

That has to be a babelfish translation.

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 10 April 2007 23:25 (nineteen years ago)

The original link didn't work, but if you track down the article, this is at the bottom:

Brad Lefton is a bilingual, St. Louis-based journalist who covers Ichiro and the Mariners for Japanese media. He has spent his career covering baseball in Japan and America and interviewed Ichiro in Japanese for this article.

― mattbot, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 00:17 (eighteen years ago)

urgh, click the link and add an "l" at the end to the address, then it'll work.

― Garrett Martin, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 01:16 (eighteen years ago)

I'd suggest a Dice-Felix NY FAP, but I'm not going to Riviera nor am I entertaining guests.

― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 17:02 (eighteen years ago)

i'm gonna try to skip out of work early to catch this one.

― Steve Shasta, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 17:10 (eighteen years ago)

fuck i'd like to see this. mlb.tv, maybe, with their free thing, but the timing is just so bad.

― jergïns, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 17:36 (eighteen years ago)

http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2007/writers/albert_chen/04/11/ichiro.dicek/t1_dice_ichiro2.jpg

― Steve Shasta, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 20:14 (eighteen years ago)

according to mlb.com:

"BaseballChannel.TV will provide free look-ins of each Dice-K vs. Ichiro meeting, starting with the game's opening pitch to the Mariners' leadoff batter soon after the cry of 'Play Ball!'"

― Michael F Gill, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 21:21 (eighteen years ago)

Arrgh, decisions. I had benched Ichiro today because I figured DiceK would pwn him thoroughly, and, well, fucking Mariners haven't done shit for me yet. But I just put him back in the lineup -- maybe Ichiro's pride will guide his bat or some equivalent mystical bullshit.

― Rock Hardy, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 23:06 (eighteen years ago)

Lady in large fur coat upset with ump.

― Andy K, Wednesday, 11 April 2007 23:13 (eighteen years ago)

So, hey, that guy on the other team, the pitcher - he's pretty OK.

― David R., Thursday, 12 April 2007 00:05 (eighteen years ago)

The liquor store down the block from me has a big movie-style sign up that says "WELCOME TO BOSTON DICE K"

― Michael F Gill, Thursday, 12 April 2007 00:28 (eighteen years ago)

OK FELIX, UNCLE, UNCLE!

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 12 April 2007 00:44 (eighteen years ago)

For fuck's sake, get one hit!

― G00blar, Thursday, 12 April 2007 00:45 (eighteen years ago)

xpost!

― G00blar, Thursday, 12 April 2007 00:45 (eighteen years ago)

Remy and Orsillo so not above trying to jinx Felix with constant mentions of the Sox' lack of hits.

― G00blar, Thursday, 12 April 2007 00:46 (eighteen years ago)

Felix pwnage.

― Belisarius, Thursday, 12 April 2007 00:59 (eighteen years ago)

defensive mvp: felix's left shin.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 12 April 2007 01:00 (eighteen years ago)

― mattbot, Thursday, 12 April 2007 01:16 (eighteen years ago)

Ah, Coco, you stooge.

― G00blar, Thursday, 12 April 2007 01:20 (eighteen years ago)

Beat the Sox.

Beat the Sox.

Some brahs are gonna be weeping into their tattered little Red Sox hats tonight.

― Belisarius, Thursday, 12 April 2007 01:23 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, that Fernandez guy, he's a player.

― David R., Thursday, 12 April 2007 01:35 (eighteen years ago)

poor ichiro. his strike zone was vastly different from everybody else's.... he had to swing at ball 5 to avoid the K.

― Steve Shasta, Thursday, 12 April 2007 01:44 (eighteen years ago)

yeah, for real. dangg.

i know i sound like a whiner, but in the first game dice-k pitched in kansas city, the home-plate ump said it was like calling a knuckleballer's game.. tonight i felt like there were a LOT of strikes that got called balls - on both sides, actually - look at King Felix's ball/strike ratio and it's not actually that hot. i think dice-k's pitches addled the ump's brain, basically. anyway, what the hell can you do when felix is pitching like that. what's the guy's ERA over 17 innings now.. 0.00, right?

dangg.

i loved how dice-k warmed up in front of the boston dugout just minutes before the game, throwing curveballs to youkilis!

haha i always forget how freakin tall richie sexson is. matsusaka threw several pitches that were actually below sexson's belt but the ump called them high.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 12 April 2007 01:46 (eighteen years ago)

How often does a pitcher change his grip while winding up like Dice does?

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 12 April 2007 13:22 (eighteen years ago)

Lookin' good tonight!

― G00blar, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 23:39 (eighteen years ago)

eh... he's having some major problems:

Toronto Inning Summary

- A. Lind struck out swinging
- V. Wells singled to third
- F. Thomas walked, V. Wells to second
- L. Overbay singled to left center, V. Wells scored, F. Thomas to second
- A. Hill walked, F. Thomas to third, L. Overbay to second
- G. Zaun walked, F. Thomas scored, L. Overbay to third, A. Hill to second
- R. Clayton struck out swinging

― Steve Shasta, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 00:30 (eighteen years ago)

but not like Jake Westbrook major problems.

― Steve Shasta, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 00:31 (eighteen years ago)

Run support for Daisuke after his first three outings:

Game 1: 7IP, 2 runs
Game 2: 7IP, 0 runs
Game 3: 6IP, 1 run (in progress).

3 runs over 20 innings = 1.35 run support (avg/9 innings.) for Daisuke when he's on the mound. When he's not on the mound, Boston has been averaging 5.00 run support.

― Steve Shasta, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 01:10 (eighteen years ago)

Too bad, that one kinda weird inning did him in.
the only thing I expected less than daisuke losing was the performance the J's got from chacin.

― The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall, Wednesday, 18 April 2007 02:23 (eighteen years ago)

DUDE IT'S NOT WHOE WINS OR LOESES
10KS BRAH

― sanskrit, Thursday, 19 April 2007 02:59 (eighteen years ago)

WHAT THE HELL IS TAVAREZ DOING TO DICE-K?

Every time I look up, there's Tavarez with his arm draped creepily over Dice-K, giving him all kinds of no doubt awful advice and Dice-K looks like he wished he could just disappear. STOP JINXING OUR WONDERBOY, JULIAN "CRAZYHEAD" TAVAREZ!!

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 23 April 2007 14:07 (eighteen years ago)

Dice-K with his first Jack Morris start! Awesome!

― David R., Monday, 23 April 2007 14:08 (eighteen years ago)

haha

― Dr Morbius, Monday, 23 April 2007 14:09 (eighteen years ago)

Someone explain the Black Jack joke?

― Leee, Monday, 23 April 2007 22:54 (eighteen years ago)

"There was a reason Morris was the winningest pitcher of his era by such a vast margin."

There was a reason, and it's called "run support." Not counting his cup of coffee in 1977, Morris pitched 17 years in the majors. Thirteen of his 17 teams were better-than-average run-scoring teams, and a whopping seven of those teams finished either first or second in the league in runs.

― félix pié, Monday, 23 April 2007 23:14 (eighteen years ago)

iirc - morris had the ability to give up one run less than the other guy every single time. it was wierd.

― The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall, Monday, 23 April 2007 23:29 (eighteen years ago)

Ahh. I only remember Morris for being one of the last guys to pitch 10 innings or more before Doc Halladay did it.

― Leee, Monday, 23 April 2007 23:31 (eighteen years ago)

"iirc - morris had the ability to give up one run less than the other guy every single time. it was wierd."

Everyone remembers that but it's been proven to be statistically untrue.

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 00:00 (eighteen years ago)

PROVEN BY SCIENCE

― G00blar, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 12:59 (eighteen years ago)

CLUTCHOLOGY IS NOT A SCIENCE

IT IS A WAY OF LIFE

― David R., Tuesday, 24 April 2007 13:01 (eighteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

Matsuzaka completes his first CG for the Sox, a 1 run/6 hit/0 walk performance over Detroit.

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 02:00 (eighteen years ago)

Prior to last night, the Detroit offense had been hot for an extended period of time (no homer).

― Andy K, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 12:17 (eighteen years ago)

steve otaku shasta

― am0n, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 13:24 (eighteen years ago)

am0n, i know you're knew to the board, but i've been talking about Daisuke on here since I first saw him pitch almost four years ago.

My friend's little brother is a huge Seibu Lions fan and has taken me to many games and I got to see DM pitch a few times long before he was on the casual mlb fan's radar. In Japan, "otaku" is not necessarily a compliment, and refers to people of a certain psychological condition who spend the majority of time inside their home obsessing over and over about their narrow interests.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/202/499503550_f1e2b5dc8e_b.jpg

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 14:39 (eighteen years ago)

u mad shasta

― cankles, Tuesday, 15 May 2007 18:41 (eighteen years ago)

lowl

― am0n, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 04:19 (eighteen years ago)

aka pedant

― francisF, Thursday, 17 May 2007 14:36 (eighteen years ago)

five months pass...

not a bad rookie year... capped off with ALCS and WS victories...

― Steve Shasta, Sunday, 28 October 2007 09:46 (eighteen years ago)

"rookie". but ya he did alright - not sure if he lived up to expectations tho.

― The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall, Sunday, 28 October 2007 20:00 (eighteen years ago)

you feel japanese leagues are minor leagues shasta?

― chicago kevin, Sunday, 28 October 2007 22:38 (eighteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

he's about the same age as many rookie pitchers, so... yeah, in a way...

here's an objective recap about the highs/lows of matsuzaka's rookie year:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/matsuzaka-mania/

― Steve Shasta, Monday, 12 November 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago)

two months pass...

Perhaps of interest for "big" fans of Daisuke:

http://www.yawkeywaystore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=JEA0069R

― Steve Shasta, Wednesday, 30 January 2008 23:43 (eighteen years ago)

three months pass...

Wait, waht?:

Matsuzaka even released an album of his favorite songs last summer with an original track dubbed "Gyro Ball," but that was the closest anybody came to seeing one in his rookie season in Beantown.

― G00blar, Sunday, 11 May 2008 10:21 (seventeen years ago)

^^^italics^^^

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZwJto6jHL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Dice-K likes Wild Boys

― G00blar, Sunday, 11 May 2008 10:25 (seventeen years ago)

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