January 31, 2012

Matsuzaka Throws Bullpen Session

Interesting news from the Mainichi Daily News (via WEEI). Daisuke Matsuzaka threw off a mound first time since having Tommy John surgery last June.
In the team's spring training complex in Florida, Matsuzaka threw his first 11 pitches with the catcher standing in front of home plate and 10 more pitches after the catcher crouched.
"Today is like a warm-up," Matsuzaka said. "I think I'll throw harder next week."
[Matsuzaka] is scheduled to long toss on Wednesday and throw in the bullpen again on Friday ...
Over at SoSH, posters are looking at other pitchers' recovery from TJ - Edinson Volquez, Jordan Zimmerman, and Stephen Strasburg being the last three starters to have the surgery before Dice - and attempting to get a rough estimate of when Dice might return to the rotation. Looking at the rehab schedule of those three "yields a potential return date range of between May 23 and June 16".

Perhaps Ben Cherington is in no rush to panic and sign either Roy Oswalt or Edwin Jackson to a deal he'll soon regret because he believes the Red Sox can get through the first two months of the season, filling the #5 spot with a variety of arms, trial and error to see who can help during the dog days, and then welcome a (hopefully) well-tuned Matsuzaka back into the fold in June. Anything close to Dice's combined 2007-08 stats (126 ERA+) would be a godsend

9 comments:

Your said...

Well that's at least some good news. Can he play SS and OF too?

9casey said...

I dont believe signing Edwin Jackson to a one year contract, would be a deal he would regret........

And have you gone mad.. You would rather wait on Dice-K, you might want to go back and read some of the threads over the last 2 years of the games he pitched..

I know they love Aceves in the setup role , but he is the best option for that 4th or 5th starter role.

allan said...

No, I was thinking of Jackson wanting 2-3 years.

I'll take the Dice of 07-08 for sure. I may be wrong, but I want to believe that some of his more recent problems have been fixed by TJ surgery.

tim said...

Happy truck month!

Robert said...

You can't throw out people like Andrew Miller,etc, in April and May, counting on Dice K's return. I will use the tired cliche,early wins are just as important as September's.Another, you can never have enough pitching. If you can get Jackson on a one year deal, do it.

Jim said...

fwiw, it's Dice-K's walk year, too. I'm quietly hoping for the best, which for him would be a healthy arm and finding his WBC attitude of arrogance towards hitters. He was a different pitcher in both those tournaments.

allan said...

Jackson for one year, no doubt about it. But Ben does seem content to wait him out.

Still wondering what will happen with Wakefield.

allan said...

Happy truck month!

One week from Sunday!

allan said...

Dice: "No problems at all. I don't feel any stiffness."



(Sorry to hear that, Mrs. Dice.)