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And even if he is as advertized, the rest of Boston's rotation has question marks: is Papelbon going to be any good as a starter over the season, is Schill going to be healthy.

Matsuzaka has been able to dominate in a league where each lineup has probably one MLB-level quality hitter, how will he deal with a loaded Yankees lineup.

I actually heard something interesting on my long drive in today.

In Japan, he faced five other teams all season - but, here he will face 13 other teams - plus those in inter-league. (There's less teams in his league in Japan.)

Therefore, he's going to face a lot more quality hitters here. It's probably three times as many really good hitters here than in Japan for him.

On the bad side, it's the same story for Igawa too.

Yankees fans should not fear the impact of Daisuke Matsuzaka on the pennant race this season - yet. He just may be the Japanese Greg Maddux.
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Well, the Sox had Pedro in his prime, and that wasn't enough; they haven't finished in first place since 1995. I'm not worried.

doh, forgot that they were tied for 1st in 2005, despite tiebreakers & whatnot

Igawa is cheaper & at best a #4 starter. Isn't Matsusaka supposed to be at least #3? The question becomes, say it is June and Igawa's not pitching so well, do you sign Clemens (assuming he wants to) and move Kei to the pen? Or keep him and bump him to #5 and trade Carla (again assuming Roger)?

And I don't care what Bud told his buddies in Boston about a division flag -- they were officially the wild card.

supposedly Pap's velocity dropped about 3-4 mph between his 1st and 2nd innings. That's good news.

As for Mats, the reverse of facing the same 5 teams is that the hitters saw him that often and STILL could barely touch him. generally hitters get better against pitchers the more they see him. (and the same for Igawa of course.)

i checked out his flyball-grounder ratio from his last game, it's 5-1. That's encouraging for us because that SHOULD mean lots of HRs. Maybe it's just from a tiny sample size, but i think it will hold true with him. he also had a rocket hit back at him that he was lucky to snare. i mean, from what's i've seen, he hasn't been dominant. mind you, i do think he'll be a very good pitcher (era~ 3.50), but not Santana-esque.

Thanks to the Boston Globe's Extra bases column, we have learned a few things about Dice-K. This was posted yesterday -

Quote:
Dice-K knows how to pitch from the stretch and get out of trouble.

Thanks for the update idiots!

My Marlin fan friend has been quick to point out that Yusmeiro Petit outpitched Matsuzaka over his three scoreless innings... one hit, five strikeouts of the considerably more formidable Red Sox lineup.

Fat pussy toad was to George Steinbrenner as batting .400 was to Ted Williams. I don't know where he came up with that, but it was from a man at the absolute peak of his abilities.

I was at that Irabu game, sitting in the upper deck along the 3rd base line. Irabu managed to K 9 of the cruddiest hitters in baseball that year but it was fun to watch him pitch.

I have to believe that Matsuzaka will be better than Irabu. If only based on conditioning and appearance...

MJ, i was also at that game in the upper deck, albeit the 1b side. that was definitely an exciting night. unfortunately, it was all downhill from there.