Matsuzaka
Well, the BoSox are paying $51.1M to talk to the best free agent pitcher available this offseason. Is he worth the 80-90 million he’s going to cost? Quite possibly. When you add together that his translated stats are better than Clemens’ over the past 3 years and the increase in money from Japanese marketing and that he’s only 26 and can still improve… I could see the deal working out. It’s possible that he tanks or gets hurt, of course, but I think from a business standpoint, he’s at least a break even proposition (and that’s not even getting to the marginal monetary value of the wins that he brings to the table).
A Matsuzaka-Schilling-Beckett front three would be pretty impressive (if flyball heavy), especially for a team that has poor OF defense. We don’t know who the Sox are going to put in the corners, but let’s assume Manny and a slugger leaving mediocre+ Crisp in center. That’s… somewhat troublesome, but not overly so for such a K-heavy top three.
Anyway, who cares about that. Let’s see how he pitches!
Slider:
The infamous gyroball:
If you’re in a fantasy league next year, I recommend trash talking and comparing him to Irabu. Then picking him up on the cheap.
Love the second video, two things,
one, that’s a hell of a drop off in that pitch. Johnny Damon is one of a few hitters that can hit pitches like that though not everytime, good strike out pitch to be sure,
two, you notice how he’s shaking his head acknowledging the catcher’s sign while he’s in the middle of his wind up with his hands over his head?
wild, never saw a pitcher do that before.
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Yes, his motion looked pretty balk-y to me too. One of the standard problems-with-Japanese pitchers things.
His “standard” pitches are all + or ++ pitches. They gyroball is just candy on the top. Apparently he only throws it rarely and never to left handers, primarily because he doesn’t think he can control it well (and there are four variations of the gyroball – he’s not sure which one’s going to come out. Kind of like a knuckler that way).
Oswalt, recent-era Clemens, and Halladay are all good comps.
You’re right, looked alot like a knuckleball, barely spinning as it approached the plate.
Easy to see why he’s hard to hit, has to baffle the shit out of the hitter the first couple of times they face him.
You really think you can talk Matsuzaka down so you can pick him up on the cheap for your fantasy team? Seems like most Fantasy managers will be on to him considering all the hype and all!
Can’t hurt to try though! lol
I dunno. I expect he’ll be overpriced, I probably wouldn’t go much above $15 for him and he’ll end up at $25. I’d toss Cole Hamels out there first to get someone to overpay for him before Matsuzaka gets on the board. Then again, maybe I’ll throw Matsuzaka out first while people are still saving for Santana. I don’t know what round of drafts Matsuzaka’ll go yet, but ~6-9 is a good guess.
My supersecret strategy for ’07 (if I play) is to pick up Felix Hernandez. I’m in the wrong locale for him to get too cheap, but a $9 Hernandez is going to be mo-nay next year.
Of the big names, I’m most avoiding Halladay. That K rate took a nasty drop.