Daisuke Matsuzaka: Tell Me Red Sox Grasshopper, What Should One Do with Daisuke?

You don’t need to know the physiology of the human body, the mechanics of pitching or the science of a curve ball to figure out that there’s something wrong with Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.  

He lasted 4.1 innings in a game against Baltimore on Monday night, giving up five hits and five runs. In eight starts, he’s given up 24 runs on 32 hits over 37 innings of work.

“Here you go,” say the Red Sox to opponents at the start of every game he pitches. “Here’s a few runs to start out with.”

Fortunately, that gift is often packaged with a little note—Enjoy the runs while they last, ‘cause you’re facing a fairly potent offense here, and we can come back from most any deficit, especially in Fenway Park.

Which, of course, they did on Monday night against Baltimore.  Matsuzaka threw a couple of extra runs into his regular "gift package," and by the time the Red Sox bats came to life in the bottom of the sixth inning, they were down 6-0. The rest you know, or should.

The Sox scored five runs in the bottom of the inning to pull within one, and eventually, down by that one with three outs left, Adrian Gonzalez bounced one off the Monster to drive in two and win the game.

But back to Daisuke. In a masterpiece of calm understatement after the game, manager Terry Francona said “I think we’re going to probably sit and talk to him a little bit.”

You think? I think it’s going to take a little more than talk. More like a swift boot in the butt, which might serve to dislodge the man’s head from that general vicinity.

I, for one, was never really all that happy about the gazillions that the Sox had to pay just to talk to the man back in ’06; termed "bidding rights," the actual figure was (strangely) $51,111,111.11.

The team could have signed three mediocre pitchers with that money that in the long run could easily have compiled better stats than Daisuke. And remember, that $51 million was just for the right to bid on him—nothing to do with the $52 million they signed him for through 2012.

With the exception of one stellar year—2008—in which he went 18-3, he hasn’t exactly been mowing ‘em down. Overall, in five years, he’s 49-30. Minus that 18-3 year, he’s 31-27 with an ERA over five.

So here’s what I’m seeing. He comes into the league with a chip on his shoulder and a wad of cash in his pocket, and in his first year, he does OK: 15-12, 4.40 ERA.

So you give him a pass, because after all, that 15-12 record was part of a World Series equation, and no one’s looking too closely at the weak links in that otherwise successful chain.

Next year, he comes in and it’s lights out; 18-3, 2.9 ERA. People didn’t notice right away that while he gave up half the home runs he had in his first season with the Sox, he walked  14 more (for a record 94, which he hasn’t reached in a season since) and struck out nearly 50 less.

The following year, the bottom drops out. He doesn’t report to spring training until about two weeks ahead of opening day, after pitching for Japan in the World Baseball Classic. He pitched Japan to a victory and was named MVP, going 3-0 in the even with an ERA of 2.45.

He’s on and off the disabled list all season and plays in only 12 games. He loses half of them, 4-6, with an ERA of 5.76 and a disturbing WHIP of 1.871, which, in case this sabermetric figure has escaped your attention (it certainly did mine for quite a while) is a measurement of batters a pitcher puts on base per inning pitched; W for walk, H for hit, IP for innings pitched.

So in 2009, Matsuzaka’s putting on almost two batters per inning. Not good.

He redeems himself a little bit in 2010, going 9-6 in 25 games, approaching his early numbers in strikeouts (133). He more than doubles his walks from the previous year, from 30 to 74, but a lot of that has to do with playing in twice as many games. He’s a little unpredictable in that regard. In his best year (’08), he walked a career record 94.

In eight games this year, he’s 3-3 with an ’09-similar ERA of 5.30 and earning close to $71,000 for every inning he pitches. As a fan, I’d like some of that money back, please, especially for that 13th inning appearance in a game versus the Angels in which he gave up what proved to be the winning run.

All this statistical gobbledygook aside, just watch the man. He doesn’t appear to have a thought in his head when he steps to the mound. John Lackey may be the team "goat" in the win-loss and ERA departments (he’s 2-5 with an ERA just over 8.00), but Matsuzaka wins the "Who cares? I’ve got $71,000 in my pocket no matter what happens in this inning" contest.

I will grant you that it is difficult to read minds, especially minds raised in a completely different culture, and will, as well, acknowledge that quoting an unread mind is presumptuous, and prejudicial.

In some ways, Ichiro out there in Seattle has that same general, (for want of a better term) inscrutable air about him that defies interpretation. Is he paying attention? How do we know? I contend that while Ichiro doesn’t reveal much when he steps to the plate or cruises in his outfield position, there is an indication in his demeanor that he’s engaged.

Not so, to my eye, with Matsuzaka, who appears at times as though he’s counting the minutes (and dollars) until he gets to sit back down.

I think we should do it for him. It’s time to go. He’s not as talented as we thought and doesn’t appear likely to get better.