Daisuke Matsuzaka came to the United States with the reputation and hype of an Ace.
Daisuke Matsuzaka was then paid like an Ace should be paid.
The entire 2006-2007 offseason became devoted to revolving gossip on: the Red Sox brand new Ace.
With his flashing start to begin the
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Opponeents are currently batting .164 off Matsuzaka. What makes you think he’ll give up 199 hits in 208 IP?
I’ll leave the stats behind on this one…what do your eyes tell you? Does Matsuzaka look and feel like a #1 starter? I would argue not…
At this point, he is still not able to command a game from beginning to end. He inevitably gets too fine with his pitches and runs needlessly high counts. He is still too prone to walks when he should be pounding the zone.
He doesn’t have that aura that you mention around him quite yet. He is still a question mark every time he rears back to throw the ball.
That all said, he’s making tremendous strides this year. But I need to see him more often dominate a game going 8 innings in 100 pitches before I can truly consider him an ace.
I love Dice-K but…
When I think of an Ace, it all goes back to the feeling I would get waiting for Pedro’s day to pitch when I was growing up. If it weren’t for the 2007 playoffs, I’m not sure that Beckett even makes my list.
Chris Young is my roommates favorite pitcher (I live in San Diego) so don’t tell him I said this, but the guy does not deserve ace consideration. He has never pitched 180 innings in a season. He has only won more then nine games in a season twice (11 and 12 wins). I don’t know how John Smoltz or Roy Oswalt didn’t get consideration when that average #1 or above average #2 does.
Love the article though. When he is not walking guys (frustrating) Dice-K is my favorite pitcher to watch. I was fortunate enough to be there for the finals of the WBC and I watched him beat Maddux at PETCO last summer. He might make it (27 yrs old) to ace status. When I’m in Boston this summer I will be checking the pitching probables before I drop the cash for good seats to be at one of Daisuke’s starts.
Tim, the guy has a 2.50 ERA and a WHIP under 1.10. Sure, he walks more than he should right now, but hitters simply aren’t touching him. His single most important pitch is his strikeout slider which made him so effective in Japan. He’s finally showed up here in the States as well and the effects are obvious. Hitters are batting .164 off of him!
I love to watch him pitch cause the hitters look absolutely helpless right now.
@Full Manny….reading back my comments…they were a little harsher than intended…but I still don’t get the feeling that we have seen the best out of DiceK. I haven’t felt like I was watching him totally in control of himself and the game.
If he can (and I think he will) make that next step from awesome stuff to the “Pedro-like” ownership of a game, thats when this gets even more special.
I also love watching him pitch…but I also can get incredibly frustrated at the same time…
If he posts your projection, that’s the numbers of an ace in the ALE.
It is easy to poke holes in DiceK but consider some differences in the comparisons. He is being compared to US pitchers that have come up through the US system. Pitchers that are use to a more conservative strike zone and ones that operate on a different rotation. Some say that doesn’t really matter but a portion of all pitching involves muscle memory and habits, which can be hard to break. He has an impeccable work ethic, he is humble and has great potential. Those are the ingredients that an Ace needs. One year is a bad sample size. After the 2006 season, there were many who thought Becket would not become the ace he is now. One key thing I notice right now is that when DiceK gets himself into a jam, he does not appear to be rattled. It’s not always pretty but he stays in until he’s thrown 100+ pitches and usually pitches out of it. I agree that he throws too many pitches seemingly by choice. That is one problem with him that I cannot defend. He will definitely have to fix that before moving to the next level.
@Fully Manny
The reason Zach has DiceK giving up almost 200 hundred hits this season is do largely to the fact that his BABIP is very low right now ( .191). Since pitchers have very little control over BABIP we should a regression toward the mean (about .300 for pitchers) over the course of the season. Now that isn’t to say that his BABIP will be .300 by the end of the season, it is highly unlikely that he will be able to maintain the .191 BABIP.