Count me among those who are happy that Daisuke Matsuzaka has been sent into exile.
Or, as major league baseball prefers to call it, the disabled list.
Matsuzaka, of course, was brought to the Red Sox with great fanfare, for the staggering sum of $103 million. But as sports columnist Bob Ryan wrote in the Boston Globe earlier this week, that’s just way too much to pay for your fifth starter. In the column, which you can find here here, Ryan makes a pretty convincing case that Matsuzaka is not worth $103 million, never will be, and wonders what kind of player he’ll be when he emerges from this period of rest and rehabilitation.
“The goal now is to restore him to, well, what, exactly?” Ryan writes. “He’s not what he was supposed to be; this much we know. He was billed as a superpitcher, a guy who threw in the mid-to-high 90s and who augmented this uberheater with as many as five auxiliary pitches, all, as they say, in the “plus’’ category. (We won’t go anywhere near that gyroball nonsense.) We’ve never seen that guy. What we’ve seen at his best is a guy who throws in the low 90s and who has decent auxiliary stuff. We have seen that, in common with pitchers in his basic category, he needs to hit spots to be effective. He has got to locate that fastball on the corners. If he can do that, everything else has a chance to work. In other words, he’s like a hundred other guys.”
Meanwhile, the Globe’s Tony Massarotti has describes Matsuzaka as “the anti-ace. So far this season, the Red Sox are 2-5 when Matsuzaka pitches, 38-21 when he does not. (Click here to read the rest of the column.)
Boston fans can be a cranky bunch, but they have every right to be irritated about Matsuzaka, an expensive acquisition whose absence from the team — much like that of fellow expensive acquisition Julio Lugo — is regarded as a blessing. I mean, you know things aren’t going well when you cost $103 million, and all of the fans just want you to go away.
NBA TRADE MACHINE
I’m still puzzled about the Celtics’ offer to trade point guard Rajon Rondo and shooting guard Ray Allen to the Pistons for Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince and Rodney Stuckey. I like Ray Allen, but I can understand why the Celtics would want to offload him. He’s expensive and will be 34 next year — not a good combination. But Rondo? The dynamic point guard they’ve molded to suit their style of play? In a league where All-Star caliber point guards are not exactly a dime a dozen? I don’t want to watch Rondo play for another team. I want to watch him play for the Celtics. So what is Danny Ainge thinking? I have no idea, but for a clue, click here.
Ainge is an interesting guy. He’s demonstrated that he’s willing to make risky, high-stakes trade, and although sometimes it ends well — Kevin Garnett = NBA championship — sometimes it does not — remember the 24 win in 06-07? Blech.
The San Antonio Spurs picked up a fine player in Richard Jefferson, but I seriously doubt they can compete for another championship. The Duncan window is closing, and the Lakers are very good. But they’re retooling, which is smart. If Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Duncan and Jefferson stay healthy next year, they could be a pretty good team.
Then there’s Jamal Crawford to the Hawks. He’s fun and all, but when has he ever made a team better? There’s a reason he’s been traded six million times.
And now what’s this? Shaquille O’Neal to Cleveland? For Sasha Pavlovic, Ben Wallace, cash and a draft pick? Well, this certainly makes things more interesting. Will Shaq help the Cavs beat the Magic (or a revitalized Celtics team) and advance to the NBA finals? Will he be able to co-exist with LeBron James, at least for one season? I have no idea. But he will be motivated, and a motivated Shaq is something to contend with, even at this late stage in his career. He’ll be motivated to show the world that he’s a better center than Dwight Howard, and motivated to get to the finals and go up against the Lakers. Unlike many great players, Shaq has become a mercenary, an oversized center-for-hire who, although he is most identified with the Lakers, has left an indelible mark on several other franchises: the Magic, Heat, Suns and now the Cavs. As Yahoo NBA columnist Adrian Wojnarowski wrote, “[Shaq] is like the aging prom queen forever finding a younger beau for his arm: From Kobe to Dwyane Wade to LeBron now.” (You can find that column here.)
CLIP OF THE DAY
DJ Steve Porter has created a remix of athletes and coaches having meltdowns, with entertaining results. Called “Press Hop,” the clip, which is available on YouTube (you can find it here), includes Allen Iverson’s famous rant about practice (“We talkin’ about practice”), Dennis Green’s rant about the Bears (“They were who we thought they were!”) and choice moments from Jim Mora, Joe Namath and Terrell Owens.
Personally, I’d like to see Porter do a remix of press conferences featuring high-profile politicians admitting they betrayed their wives and constituents by having affairs, soliciting sex in bathrooms, sending inappropriate e-mails to underage pages and paying for high-priced call girls. He could start with South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford talking about his trip to Argentina to visit his girlfriend, and then move on to Nevada Sen. John Ensign, Larry Craig, Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards, David Paterson, Jim McGreevey, Mark Foley, David Vitter, Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, Jim West, Gavin Newsom, Bob Livingston and Newt Gingrich.
Am I missing any?
Got a comment? Add one below or e-mail me at sfoss@dailygazette.net.
