Daisuke Matsuzaka GCL rehab start.

[Gosawks]

Daisuke Matsuzaka (shoulder) pitched three innings and struck out four in a Gulf Coast League game on Monday.

He threw 37 pitches and allowed only one hit against 11 batters. "Everything was pretty good," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "Good breaking ball. He commanded his fastball and stayed down. He had good changeups. Generally, really positive." Matsuzaka is scheduled to pitch for Double-A Portland on Thursday and Triple-A Pawtucket on September 3. He could return to the Red Sox as soon as Sept. 8.

 

Rotoworld

[RWTP24]

Lets all hope he can do that in the BIG leagues.

[Dojji]

Velocity?

 

A pretty crucial question to not get answered.

[SoxSport]

Now why can't I catch a minor league game when a major league pitcher is getting a rehab start?

That's getting your money's worth.

[BSN07]

Velocity?

 

A pretty crucial question to not get answered.

 

That was my initial thought as well. Is he still 89-91 MPH or 92-94MPH? It should be a good gauge pf how strong his shoulder is at this point.

[RWTP24]

That was my initial thought as well. Is he still 89-91 MPH or 92-94MPH? It should be a good gauge pf how strong his shoulder is at this point.

 

That is very true.. how could we find out??

[example1]

Daisuke Matsuzaka (shoulder) pitched three innings and struck out four in a Gulf Coast League game on Monday.

He threw 37 pitches and allowed only one hit against 11 batters. "Everything was pretty good," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "Good breaking ball. He commanded his fastball and stayed down. He had good changeups. Generally, really positive." Matsuzaka is scheduled to pitch for Double-A Portland on Thursday and Triple-A Pawtucket on September 3. He could return to the Red Sox as soon as Sept. 8.

 

Rotoworld

 

It may be weird to say, but I actually think the Red Sox have Daisuke right where they want him. Francona is usually glowing about his pitchers whenever they do something good, like Smoltz pitching a simulated game by himself in a batting cage for instance (okay, I made that up, but you know what I mean).

 

With Daisuke--from this quote at least--he's not going to be overly praising or lauditory. Make Dice earn every bit of praise that he gets and work his ass off to prove that he belongs in this league. We've all seen him pitch at very, very high levels (I'd say 10+ K's in a game is an excellent level) and he was, without doubt, one of the best pitchers in Japanese baseball history.

 

This year he showed up out of shape and insisted on pitching in the WBC. Then he sucked in games. Then he slammed the FO for their training program. He has a lot to prove if he wants to get back in their good graces. A solid #3 starter season from him and a good return this year would really help. Don't praise him. Don't set up a false sense of hope. Light a fire under him and let him prove that he's actually one of the best pitchers in the world when he's in shape and go from there. That is what the Sox were hoping for when they spent a boatload of money to win the rights to him and he's still young enough that he should be able to provide some quality starts moving forward.

 

I don't believe there is anything wrong with his arm, merely that he didn't prepare for this season appropriately and threw too much in the WBC where, despite his WBC MVP, he looked pretty shaky.

[RWTP24]

Has anyone thought that maybe we are changing the way he does thing to much and he is not comfortable anymore?? The Japanese seem to throw a lot more over their. If my memory is correct, there has been a lot of Japanese pitcher that come over here, do really well for about 2 or 3 years and then fall off the planet. OR is it, that they throw to much, by the time they get to the MLB they are almost done because they throw way to much??

[WhiskeyBreath]

http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=10981572

 

Here is a video of his rehab start.

[Dojji]

http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=10981572

 

Here is a video of his rehab start.

 

One thing I noticed was that Daisuke flexed his shoulder after nearly every pitch shown in the video in live action. Clearly there's still some kind of discomfort there.

[BoSox21]

Clearly there's still some kind of discomfort there.

 

If that's the case, they'd shut him down right now and call it a season

[example1]

Has anyone thought that maybe we are changing the way he does thing to much and he is not comfortable anymore?? The Japanese seem to throw a lot more over their. If my memory is correct' date=' there has been a lot of Japanese pitcher that come over here, do really well for about 2 or 3 years and then fall off the planet. [b']OR is it, that they throw to much, by the time they get to the MLB they are almost done because they throw way to much[/b]??

 

I think the Red Sox are pretty sure its the bolded part above. Interestingly, it is very hard to actually know what the answer is because there are so many variables at play. Do Japanese pitchers age well in Japan, where presumably they have the same workout throughout their career? If so, is it because of the workouts or the shorter season, or the smaller ball?

 

The Sox (and most good MLB teams other than the 09 Rangers and Nolan Ryan) seem to think that a pitchers arm has a finite number of quality pitches in it and that it is important to use those pitches as effeciently as possible. Careful pitch counts, regular stress tests, steady progressions of innings from year to year throughout development, regular rest in the middle of the season all support that approach.

 

I'm not sure how proven that theory is, but given that both the Sox and the Yankees are doing it regularly with their younger pitchers tells me that they seem to think it is the way to manage players when you have hundreds of millions spent on the team. There must be something to it.

 

On the other side of things are the Japanese, who seem to think that only by throwing hundreds of pitches over and over and over will a player develop the stamina necessary to endure a long season and a long career. Physiologically it seems to make sense in a lot of cases (weight lifters need to lift to increase their capacity, nobody assumes lifters have a finite number of lifts in them, same with marathon runners).

 

The question may be "is pitching more like an explosive action or like marathon running?" With Dice-K the answer may be that preparing you to be a marathon runner makes you able to tolerate throwing a lot, but whether what you are throwing is MLB caliber or just garbage might swing the discussion back toward explosiveness and maximum leverage. The Sox don't need Dice to throw 200 pitches. They need the 100 pitches that he throws to be as sharp and hard as they can possibly be. They'll take the rest from the bullpen, thank you very much!

 

I'd be interested to know whether Oki threw a lot when he was younger or what his specific workout regimen was as he developed.