Is Dice-K the first casualty of the WBC?
by clack on Apr 15, 2009 8:15 AM CDT
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PrintThe potential impact of World Baseball Classic participation on pitchers has been a topic around here. Now, it appears that Daisuke Matsuzaka's recent problems in a Red Sox game has been attributed to his WBC worload.
The Red Sox right-hander labored through just one inning before being pulled from Tuesday night's game in Oakland with what the club diagnosed as arm fatigue.
Matsuzaka threw 43 pitches, only 22 of which were strikes. After being staked with a 3-0 lead before even throwing a pitch, Matsuzaka gave up five hits and five runs in that one inning, walking two and striking out none. He faced 10 batters....
"We talked to him the other day," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "He expressed a couple of days ago some kind of general soreness or fatigue in the back of his shoulder from the [Classic]. We thought we talked it through pretty good in Anaheim and he came out tonight and didn't really have a whole lot. We'll re-evaluate him in the morning."
Francona also said:
"Again, I know I'm harping on it a little bit, but I think he probably tried to ramp up too quick [for the Classic] and we're feeling the effects of it," Francona said. "We're eight games into the season, we've lost [six] games, it's not a real fun night."
Oh, a 2-6 start isn't much fun, Terry?
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…That’s Japanese 3rd baseman Murata Shunichi of the Yokohama BayStars. He tore his hamstring in the classic and has yet to appear this year.
I think the effect of the classic on players is overrated, and it seems like you only hear whining about WBC-related wear-and-tear in the MLB. Other sports send their top pros to international competitions; why is baseball unique that it can’t?
because the games are more important in the major leagues...
than international competition. The players are paid huge amounts of money to fill major league ball parks and win major league games, not international games. The Red Sox paid, what? $60 or $70 million for Dice-K’s posting fee, not to mention the additional sums for his salary. It’s kind of like allowing Lance Berkman to play flag football. :)
I'm not sure they should be.
Take a look at world soccer as an example. The teams in the EPL can compete in 4 separate competitions a year, 3 of which are separate from their main purpose (FA cup, Carling Cup, Champion’s League), not to mention national team duty for world cup qualifiers, touring exhibitions, etc.
All this extra play certainly adds injury risk for the players, wears them out, potentially keeps them out of their main paid role. But what’s the side effect? Soccer’s the most globally beloved sport, because the best players play in the best competitons against players from around the world.
Baseball’s got a global perception as being a regional sport, sort of like cricket. I don’t think that perception will ever change, and I don’t think baseball will ever grow outside its regional strongholds without meaningful global competition. That’s a shame, I think, because baseball is the best sport around!
Sure, I don’t want the see Big Puma in a flag football competition (well, I DO, but you know what I mean), but I sure would have loved to see him take his cuts in the WBC.
by smorkadelic on Apr 15, 2009 10:40 AM CDT up reply actions
It could be the classic
or could finally be all the ridiculous amounts of luck Dice-K had in 2008 finally regressing to the mean.
The Crawfishboxes
A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.
What about Roy Oswalt?
Not arm fatigue . . . but 9 runs allowed in 16 innings, below average (for him ) Strikeouts per inning, and more walks and hits per inning; and homeruns per nine innings
WBC (or no Brad Ausmus) ?
Astros fan for life
by Joe in Birmingham on Apr 15, 2009 11:48 AM CDT reply actions
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