Dice-K Drama: Red Sox Should Allow Hurler to Throw Longer

“Disappointing” was the word of the day Tuesday in Red Sox land, as Boston’s boys of summer turned in a disappointing bullpen performance, punctuated by Jonathan Papelbon’s third blown save of the season. 

Tuesday’s loss gives Boston their seventh loss in the past 10 games, a disappointing stretch, no doubt.

But what really disappointed the Red Sox’ front office brass—not to mention manager Terry Francona and pitching coach John Farrell—was Red Sox (once) ace Daisuke Matsuzaka’s comments to Japanese media a few days back.

In the interview, Matsuzaka expressed his discontent with how his rehab’s gone thus far, irked by how Farrell and the Sox pitching staff are handling his pitch count. 

Perhaps his tough words for the Sox organization were lost in translation, but the Dice Man is essentially blaming not himself, but the Red Sox for his poor performance thus far; if only they’d allow him to pitch more, there’d be more results.

“It’s disappointing,” said Francona to The Providence Journal Tuesday after hearing about Dice-K’s comments.  “Not disappointing that he has an opinion…it’s disappointing we took a meeting that was confidential and he decided to air it publicly.”

John Farrell reiterated the disappointment in interviews with the Boston Globe and with sports radio hosts Dale and Holley on WEEI-AM 850 Tuesday afternoon.

“For them to come out as they have now is, in a word, disappointing,” said Farrell.

Disappointment aside, Matsuzaka’s bone of contention is that Japanese pitchers require more starts and more throws for them to really make a difference on the mound and to build up arm strength.  And Farrell doesn’t take this notion for granted.  Up to a point, at least.

“We’re familiar with the norms and practices Japanese pitchers go through,” said Farrell in his interview with WEEI’s midday duo.  “But when you allow a pitcher to ramp up volume when he’s in an area that’s in somewhat of a red flag, that’s just being negligent on our part...

“To us, it doesn’t matter if you’re from Japan, the Dominican, or the States, we feel that the human body has movements that it goes through that you’ve gotta support it through overall conditioning and strength, in addition to throwing, but if you take it from just a throwing standpoint, I think you’re getting to the point of diminishing returns and putting your arm in jeopardy of further injury.  That’s what we’ve tried to educate him on because he’s that valuable and he deserves that.”

Farrell’s comments certainly sound reasonable and logical, but one only has to look at Daisuke’s performance in the World Baseball Classic and his outings this year to think that there may be a method to Dice-K’s madness.

In Matsuzaka’s 35 innings of work over eight appearances this year, he’s surrendered eight home runs (the same number as Wakefield’s surrendered in 108 innings) 59 hits (20 more than Manny Delcarmen, whose pitched in only four more innings) and 35 runs, all of them earned (four fewer than Justin Masterson, whose pitched in twice the number of innings).

Now compare that to his six appearances in the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic:  Over 28 innings, he allowed just three home runs, 22 hits, and six runs, all of them earned. 

Granted, that’s in seven fewer innings pitched, but the breadth of difference in all three statistical categories is far greater than the difference in number of innings pitched.

Oh, and Dice-K received MVP honors not only in 2006, but in 2009 as well.

For these reasons, it seems reasonable to believe that Matsuzaka knows his body and knows the conditions in which he pitches best. 

While the 2007-08 season was good for Matsuzaka—suggesting that the Sox’ pitching staff properly handled Dice-K then—it wasn’t great, as his win-loss record might suggest (18-3). 

Much like the Papelbon of ’09, he had a penchant for loading the bases, walked innumerable batters, and perpetually turned in at least one rough (and I do mean rough) inning outing after outing.  In short, his nights on the mound were rarely 1-2-3.

The Red Sox have a lot invested in their $52 million man, but the Red Sox should call Matsuzaka’s bluff and allow him to pitch the way he’s comfortable, to pitch longer and deeper in rehab assignments. 

Sure, having him throw longer risks injury, but when you’re the Boston Red Sox—a team waist deep in young guns for arms like Buchholz and Bard (just ask the Toronto Blue Jays, perhaps the two players out there they’d trade straight up for Roy Halladay), not to mention a bottom line that rivals the New York Yankees’ piggy bank—this seems like a risk worth taking.

Otherwise, it’ll probably be another disappointing season for Dice-K.