Unrest with Dice-K

I don't get this whole thing with Daisuke being tired already. Seems like a weak excuse for him not figuring out MLB batters. You know how many pitches he'd be throwing per game in Japan? Every game would be a complete game opportunity, so I'd say around 120-140 pitches.

Of course there is one extra day of rest in Japan and a longer schedule in America, but Japanese pitchers have been some of the biggest workhorses in baseball history. Jiro Noguchi, anybody?

If you look at Daisuke's stats, he absolutely dominates weaker AL teams and NL teams, then gets hit around by .500+ level AL teams. Red Sox fans talk about his lack of consistency, but he's been very consistent in this regard. If he pitched against nobody other than the Royals, Devil Rays, etc. he'd have stats very similar to his time in Japan. It's that next level of team that is giving him a lot of trouble.

Boras only cares about how much money he makes off his players. He is in no position to comment on the condition of his players, and I really don't think he cares. Boras is still being a whiny little %#^ (because Dice-K signed with the Red Sox and couldn't challenge the posting system, thus allowing him to make more money). To quote (gasp) Brian Cashman, Boras needs to forget the sour grapes.

Also, I think that the hype machine made Dice-K something he really isn't right now. Everybody was made to believe that Dice-K would be this unstoppable force that would be a guaranteed 20-game winner. Remember, this is a long-term investment the Red Sox made in Dice-K, and this is only the first year. If this was the 3rd or 4th year of his contract, I would be worried. We all need to put this into perspective and note that he is still consistently going 6 and 7 innings per start.

I will agree that Dice-K does do better against the sub-.500 teams, but what good pitcher doesn't? We all have to remember that the American League is a heck of a hitting league, and Dice-K has pitched well against Seattle and Detroit, and he has done well enough against the Yankees. It's panic time if Dice-K doesn't get it by year 3 or 4.

Joe - Really? I haven't yet seen those statements anywhere (not that I'm questioning that they were made).

Anyway, I don't think there's necessarily any "unrest with Dice-K" per se. Boras' job is to keep himself in the headlines and keep himself high-profile. This is the same guy that recently suggested a 9-game World Series. He's a good agent in the sense that he's always trying to get top dollar for his clients, but like Francona (supposedly) said, outside of player contracts Boras carries very little weight. Also, I can only assume the radio station you're talking about is WEEI in Boston? If not I apologize but if so, you have to take everything said/heard on that station with a grain of salt. The Boston media can be some of the worst in the country at stoking the flames of controversy just for the sake of generating a story, often where there is none. And the callers are the same way, often sky-is-falling types with very little real to say. 2004 cured a lot of our collective psychoses, but as Sox fans we're still pretty good at complaining.

BigManZam is mostly on point I'd say, but I don't think anyone that matters, which is to say anyone in a position to do anything about it, is concerned with Daisuke being tired. In fact, in Jim Allen's recent article about the Red Sox tie-up with Lotte, Sox scout Craig Shipley said, "We look at it [Japan] as a place where there is a great deal to learn. There's a great deal to learn in the discipline and the way they teach. We've already taken some of those things, that we've learned from Daisuke [Matsuzaka] and implemented it in our minor league system, as far as throwing program and the way to build arm strength."

So, Boras can sound off all he wants, but I'd be pretty surprised if Sox brass agrees or cares. More concerning, as BigManZam says, is his inability to consistently dominate as he had in Japan, which frankly I expected. But personally I think (and hope!) he's still making the adjustment, and is only going to get better.

Funny you should ask about the quote. Today I had my har in a local garage for safety/emissions inspection. On the coffee table was a USA Today newspaper dated Monday, July 16, 2007.

I was reading the sports section and on page 4C under "American League Notes - Boston" they had similar wording, except that they name The Boston Globe as the source. It seems that Boras told The Boston Globe. So look up either USA Today or The Boston Globe. I don't read The Boston Globe.