June 1, 2011

Report: Matsuzaka Will Have Tommy John Surgery

Peter Abraham writes that, according to Nikkan Sports of Japan, Daisuke Matsuzaka will undergo season-ending surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament of his right elbow (aka Tommy John surgery).

Here is a rough translation of the Nikkon article, with some discussion. Matsuzaka may not have gone to Japan for family reasons, as was reported. He may have received several doses of platelet injection therapy, possibly without the Red Sox's knowledge or approval.

Recovery time from TJ surgery is between 12-18 months. If Matsuzaka has the operation soon (one report says he might have surgery next week), he could conceivably return to the Red Sox at the end of the 2012 season. It seems safer to assume his Boston career is over -- especially if he lied to the front office about the trip to Japan.

28 comments:

Amy said...

Wow. What is happening to our pitching staff? Who will fill the gaps?

laura k said...

What is happening to our pitching staff?

I thought we were all relieved when Dice went on the DL. We've been doing fine without him.

It's sad and very serious for him personally, of course, but from a fan perspective, not so much.

Amy said...

Yes, I am not saying I will miss DiceK on the staff. But how long can Wake hold down that slot in the rotation? Or Aceves? And losing all these games in a row does not make me feel like we are doing fine at this moment, though obviously some of these were pitched by our healthy regular starters.

Just me being me, worrying...

laura k said...

Sounds like you need to scroll back through this blog and reacquaint yourself with how awesome this team has been, the historic turnaround it has made. (This might help.)

You also might want to check if there's ever been a team in baseball history with a completely healthy, stable pitching staff from April to October. Ok, slight exaggeration there! :) But who knows what our pitching staff will look like in the second half of the season.

We had a bad series against the White Sox, but 2 GB on June 2 is not a cause for concern.

Amy said...

You know me...what have you done for me in the last ten minutes!

Seriously, I am not at all worried about the team. But a tad worried about the pitching staff overall.

Right now I am actually more worried about my community at home where a series of tornadoes caused extensive damage last night and killed four people and injured many others. We are on the Cape, so I am trying to get updates online. Baseball is just a minor worry and a good distraction.

laura k said...

How terrible. Good luck and I'm glad you are safe!

Mikey Cee said...

Always seemed to be an oil and water mix....

Tom said...

Dice-K has been awful....this should be a welcome change for us. Maybe we can pursue an additional pitcher....look out there and see who's available....a Brett Meyers perhaps.

While we're at it, a new closer wouldn't be so bad ;)

9casey said...

Pete Abe might have been right..

I think you are going to see alot less Asian pitchers signed.

I don't know if it is how they are handled before they get here.

But it seemed like 2 or 3 years ago there were alot more in MLB and it seems like most of them are either hurt or out of baseball..

allan said...

While we're at it, a new closer wouldn't be so bad ;)

Because having one of only five relievers to have pitched in at least 200 games since the start of 2007 and have a WHIP under 1.05 is such a bad thing:

Mariano Rivera 0.894
Rafael Soriano 0.979
Joe Nathan 1.003
Joakim Soria 1.043
Jonathan Papelbon 1.048

Nevertheless, Bot will likely be long gone to free agency after this season anyway ...

Patrick said...

Daisuke was the worst to watch. Wow did that guy suck sometimes. I'm glad to see him gone. Good riddance.

Now we gotta end the skid and start kicking ass again.

laura k said...

While we're at it, a new closer wouldn't be so bad ;)

We may get a new closer, but chances are very good he will not be as good as Papelbon.

tim said...

Yeesh Amy, I heard about those tornadoes the other night and immediately thought of you and your family - hope everyone is alright!

And no need to be worried about our rotation, psh, we've got Lackey coming back this weekend so we'll be set!

Amy said...

Thanks, Tim, for your concern. Fortunately we are away and safe, but our town still does not have any electricity so who knows what we have waiting for us. The tornado missed our town by inches, it seems, going from Springfield to Wilbraham---our town is right in between.

And I am sure Lackey will still be lacking...

MacLeodCartoons said...

Laura - didn't the 2004 team pretty much get every start out of their opening rotation of Pedro, Schill, Wake, Arroyo and Lowe? There were a few spot starts here and there [I saw one, in a double header v the Orioles, with Wake going at night] but I think they pretty much all made all their starts. Just part of the ol' 2004 Magic!! And Amy, all the best to your friends and family.

laura k said...

James/Cartoons, if you say so! I'm assuming you looked it up - I'm not going to. :)

My point (exaggerated for effect, as I said) was just a long-term view that pitching issues are very common, and not necessarily a cause for worry - especially when it helps us get rid of a pitcher who has been a question mark at best.

I know the team had pitching woes in 2007, and that worked out pretty well.

allan said...

2004 Starts

Pedro 33
Lowe 33
Schilling 32
Wakefield 30
Arroyo 29
&
Kim 3
Astacio 1
Alvarez 1

allan said...

With Hill out, Okajima says he'd rather be traded than called up.

"I'd rather not be called up in this situation. ... [H]opefully along the line another team will show more interest in me and I can be traded."

MacLeodCartoons said...

Laura, I saw your point and I absolutely agree with you. I just remembered that 2004 was one of the very very few examples of that not being the case. I only looked it up after I posted, and was surprised to see Kim - I didn't remember that at all. I'd NEVEr have guessed him in a trivia quiz. And I agree too that losing Dice-K is not a disaster - he has been at times unbearable to watch pitching. And what's Oki saying?

laura k said...

Thanks, James. 2004 is the Great Exception that proves and disproves almost everything. :)

Re Kim, that's a perfect example of how inaccurate our memories are - all of us.

I always chuckle (or sometimes grit my teeth, depending) when announcers say, "I've never seen a season where there's been so many [whatever]." Rained out games, injured pitchers, blown umpiring calls, manager ejections - whatever it is, they are usually wrong! When they say it as a figure of speech, it's no big deal, but when they're actually trying to make a case for something, it's ridiculous.

Amy said...

Thanks, James (Macleod Cartoons?). Fortunately so far everyone we know is safe and so are their homes. Businesses, OTOH, are a mess.

So what's with Oki? He hates us?

Tom DePlonty said...

YFSF is running a Dice-K Tommy John Haiku contest.
http://www.yfsf.org/2011/06/cant-stanza-the-dice-k-tommy-john-haiku-context.html

I think my favorite is

You could finish Proust
In the time between pitches
Thank you, Daisuke

allan said...

Let's not forget that 2004 came REALLY close to being one of the most horrible and frustrating seasons of all time, especially coming right after the soul-crushing 2003 campaign.

Jere said...

Funny how in those haikus, any time someone uses "Daisuke," they consider it a three-syllable word. You'd think they'd know how to say Daisuke by now. Gee if only there were some Americanized term that helped us say the word Daisuke in English....

Disclaimer 1: Yes I know haiku is a very complicated thing and the syllables don't have to fit exactly and all that but I think it's assumed that as dumb Westerners we're going with 5-7-5.

Disclaimer 2: And yes I know that while "Dice-K" is two syllables, it probably doesn't represent the precise pronunciation and when you hear a Japanese person say "Daisuke" you might hear that quick "oo" between the Dice and the K, but, again, it's been established that Dice-K is the pronunciation we've all always used.

Post-disclaimer summary: Or maybe some people just never learned that Dice-K isn't a nickname but rather a phonetic spelling of Daisuke.

Relating to earlier comment: I was at the Abe Alvarez 2004 start in that O's doubleheader too! Here's what I wrote on my blog the next day: "Abe should be okay in a few years, he just needs to not walk everybody." Wrong!!!

laura k said...

Whenever I've heard Japanese people pronounce Matsuzaka's first name, it sounds like there are three distinct syllables. The two-syllable pronounciation sounds anglicized to my ears.

In any case, calling these little 5-7-5 ditties "haikus" is absurd and strictly for fun (as you suggest), so it really shouldn't matter.

laura k said...

Let's not forget that 2004 came REALLY close to being one of the most horrible and frustrating seasons of all time

That's the other big takeaway from 2004 that often gets lost. The first one being, of course, never think you know the future.

Tom DePlonty said...

I thought of a revision to that haiku that avoids the whole issue of how many syllables in the name...

You could finish Proust
In the time between pitches
Crap, another walk.

laura k said...

Brilliant.