Rolling The Dice: The “K” Beats O’s
Aug 20th 08
Wednesday August 20th, 2008
Recap of the game: Boston Herald
Analysis:
I believe that Matsuzaka is on a decent roll and has a chance to win the American League Cy Young. Even with the chance, what I find more astounding in hist stats is his stubborn approach to pitching hitters.
He has the tendency, the audacity, and the straight-out balls to continually throw all hitters off-speed pitchers in hitters counts. He is the only pitcher that I know of in recent memory that can shake off Jason Varitek more than 10-15 times a game. And he has this insane approach that he will rarely throw what the hitter wants to hit, regardless of the count. So many walks have come off of this approach ( a guy with his control doesn’t walk 77 batters in 126 innings, and is #1 in this category, ahead of yesterday’s opponent Daniel Cabrera ).
I am unsure if he relentlessness to never give into a hitter is a good thing or a bad thing. Considering he hasn’t had this ratio since the beginning of his career in Japan is something that has to be noted. Is his walking a symptom of his pitching style to hitters ( I want to be objective and say different, not better ) in the United States? Is it reflective of when he only faces good hitting teams ( especially when they are all saturated in the same division? )? Is it that he still doesn’t have that “comfortable” factor from being in a different country, and he has yet to adjust himself pitching-wise?
I am still wary of his pitching style since it forces him on many occasions to throw less economically, thus keeping his talents from moving into the latter innings of the game. On the 5-day schedule , it is unknown when Dice-K may hit the wall of fatigue. Last season, things started falling apart in mid-August. How many good pitches and good games does he have left before it could happen again?
Due to his injury early in the season, and Francona’s insistence on moving starts back one day, Dice-K has been relatively kept fresh for the upcoming post-season. He is nowhere near the pitch count or the innings amount he was at last year, and should be ready to go for the rest of the season.
My only concern is that he plays with fire by putting runners on, and the correlation to runners on base to winning is usually inverse. Lets hope the baseball gods understand his style and overlook that matter.
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