Matsuzaka slated for spring debut

[NewsBot]

Matsuzaka slated for spring debut

More... (http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070218&content_id=1806096&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos&partnered=rss_bos)

[grogsox]

Anyone else getting excited about this guy? Schilling says he has stuff similar to Pedro. Can't wait to see how he does in his start this week.

[Fully Tilted]

Anyone else getting excited about this guy? Schilling says he has stuff similar to Pedro. Can't wait to see how he does in his start this week.

Extremely excited and I think everybody is--my expectations are tempered a bit though considering he's never pitched in MLB before. What I am more excited about is the fact that we have a plethora of young pitchers (Beckett, Papelbon, Matsuzaka, Lester, Hansen, DelCarmen etc.) in a Red Sox uniform. I've been saying for a little while that if Matsuzaka can pitch effectively to his abiility, Beckett bounces back and Papelbon continues to progress, we have Mulder/Hudson/Zito V 2.0.

[Mikiemo83]

I've been saying for a little while that if Matsuzaka can pitch effectively to his abiility, Beckett bounces back and Papelbon continues to progress, we have Mulder/Hudson/Zito V 2.0.but we can afford to place a team around them - something the A's never could do

[Patriots4ever]

I pulled this from the Coco thread, it was the last paragrah in that linked article. It dosen't make much sense to me, but if he does have a slow delivery, wouldn't that mean he may be easy to run on? They're fluffing it off when clearly to me it would be of concern.

No running concern
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td height="8"><spacer type="block" height="8" width="8"></td></tr></tbody></table> Matsuzaka has a slow, methodical pitching delivery, but the Sox aren’t openly concerned that he will be too easy for baserunners to exploit.
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td height="8"><spacer type="block" height="8" width="8"></td></tr></tbody></table> “There were no red flags when I was looking at video this winter of guys running on him like crazy or anything like that, so I would be very surprised if that’s an issue,” Francona said. “But we will certainly - as we do with every pitcher - monitor where they are and how much we have to keep an eye on the running game, so there aren’t any huge surprises when the season starts.” . . . <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td height="8"><spacer type="block" height="8" width="8"></td></tr></tbody></table>

[Fully Tilted]

but we can afford to place a team around them - something the A's never could do

Not only that, but we can also afford to hold on to them which the A's couldn't do either. In all fairness, that worked out for them pretty well though because Mulder and Zito are not the same pitcher's they were back then. Zito has been the epitome of consistency as far as pitching in MLB goes but I would never pay that much for him.

[southcarolina]

Is there any word whether any of Matsusaka's ST starts will be televised nationally? Is his debuy a big enough story outsid of Boston for ESPN to show it?

[Mikiemo83]

it will be against BC on NESN for only a couple of innings

[Fully Tilted]

I pulled this from the Coco thread, it was the last paragrah in that linked article. It dosen't make much sense to me, but if he does have a slow delivery, wouldn't that mean he may be easy to run on? They're fluffing it off when clearly to me it would be of concern.


It would concern me too. I never thought of this but I wish Youtube or Google Video had something with him picking a runner off or even keeping one in check. Of all of the videos I've watched of him, I haven't seen him step off and throw to a base.

To shed positive light, he has great control and doesn't walk many batters which to me is uber-important when talking about runners taking off on your delivery from the stretch.

When you have a pitcher coughWakefieldcough who walks a lot of batters coughWakefieldcough and is naturally slow to the plate coughWakefieldcough it can be disastrous.

[southcarolina]

it will be against BC on NESN for only a couple of innings


I dont get NESN here. ESPN and ESPN 2, Fox Sports South , ESPN Classic and some fishing channel is all i get.