Although his skills are not ever going to let him be anything more than a number five pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka can still be worth the value of his deal if he can just stay healthy. In 2007 and 2008 he posted WAR over 3.2 and was worth nearly $15 million in free agent dollars those years.
Based on the velocity return this year it seems he should be healthy, but his pitches have hit the zone for the lowest rate in his career at 46 percent. He is also throwing his lowest rate of first pitch strikes. It’s not surprising that this has led to a BB/9 over 5.50 this year, but what about his strikeouts.
He could always count on a slightly higher K/9 to help him stay respectable and be a valuable pitcher, but this year he has only been able to strikeout 6.55 every nine innings.
Not only has he not improved this year, but he might have gotten worse. He still needs some time as this could be a sample size problem, but with an eight walk game the other day it’s not looking good.