No Dice-K? Like that'll affect the Red Sox
Posted: Thursday, May 29, 2008 9:11 PM
No Dice-K? No problem for the Boston Red Sox.
This is the measure of how well Theo Epstein and Larry Lucchino have built this Boston team: the Sox can face the possibility of losing their best pitcher for weeks or even months and not feel obliged to go into panic mode.
In fact, if Daisuke Matsuzaka ends up on the disabled list, the Red Sox may actually end up better off for it by season’s end. Matsuzaka left Tuesday’s game against Seattle complaining of “shoulder fatigue,” and if he is shelved it will give super-prospect Justin Masterson a turn or two – or more – in the rotation.
The Sox have a superfluity of pitching. Clay Buchholz, the 23-year-old who pitched a no-hitter last year, is coming back after a finger injury. Bartolo Colon has been resurrected and is pitching well. Jon Lester threw a no-hitter on May 19. Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield just keeps rolling along. And if Dice-K has to sit for a while, well, there’s always this Masterson kid.
He’s in Class AA at the moment, but he’s made two emergency starts this year, giving up two runs in 12.1 innings, has a 1.46 ERA, a 1-0 record and seems pretty unflappable for a 23-year-old. He’s 6-6, 250 and is destined for the starting rotation.
Bill Chuck, the baseball guru at Billy-ball.com and author of “Walk-Offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs – Baseball’s Grand (and not so Grand) Finales,” sent me this report from Boston: “I think Masterson is the real deal. He shows great poise and really keeps the game moving along. He looks more advanced than Lester did when he first came up. The way Colon is pitching, the Sox can live without Dice-K for awhile.”
There’s such smugness about the pitching staff in Boston that even the baseball pundits can’t summon up dire warnings about what could happen if Matsuzaka has to sit for a while. Instead, some are saying the best thing to do is give him as much rest as he needs.
Some teams can be destroyed by key injuries. Others can be strengthened by them. The Red Sox would seem to be in the second category. Matsuzaka said he had a similar feeling once before in his career while he was in Japan. Then, he pitched anyway. Now, he wants to be sure because of what’s at stake.
If a rest makes him stronger later in the season, that’s good. And the opportunity to start could prove that Masterson is ready to stay with the big club – or perhaps to be called up for the stretch run.
And then there’s Bill Chuck’s desire that the kid pitch in an interleague game in a National League park, “so we can hear, ‘At Bat, Masterson.’ "
