[RedSoxAnni]

Game Time: 1:05 pm

Scheduled Starters: Daisuke Matsuzaka v. Yusmeiro Petit


The game will be on Gameday Audio (Marlins feed).



West Palm Weather: 8 am observation - wind out of the north at 10 mph, visibility 10 miles, few clouds at 2,600 feet, temperature 58, DP 42.


Forecast: Sunny and cool, with highs in the upper 60's to low 70's.

[gatorgurl67]

Going to the game today. Sitting by the Sox dugout. Will try to get some good pictures. :)

[aklaft]

Could someone more competant than me post the game day link once the game starts? Thanks!

[GreenMountainSoxFan]

aklaft, on Mar 6 2007, 11:26 AM, said:

Could someone more competant than me post the game day link once the game starts? Thanks!

Here you go

I just modified the link that Bosoxwest posted yesterday

This post has been edited by GreenMountainSoxFan: 06 March 2007 - 01:44 PM

[NJSoxFan]

So, did anyone actually see Matsuzaka pitch, or hear audio? Looks like he did pretty well ...

[gerky]

It pains me to read and paste something by CHB, but it's simply a recap in the blog:

Quote

Dice-K knows how to pitch from the stretch and get out of trouble.

Making his first spring training start against major league hitters, Daisuke Matsuzaka got into a jam in the second inning against the Florida Marlins today. After walking leadoff hitter Joe Borchard and fanning Miguel Olivo, he surrendered a ground-rule double into the gap in right center by John Gall. Bouchard certainly would have scored if the ball hadn’t bounded over the fence plate.

No matter. Matsuzaka bore down and caught Scott Seabol looking at strike three, then got the ninth hitter, Eric Reed, to pop up a bunt. Dice-K threw 36 pitches in the first two innings, 24 for strikes.

It was amusing to see Matsuzaka cover his mouth with his glove when Sox catcher Jason Varitek came to the mound in mid-count with the runner on second in the second inning. As if we would know what he was saying. This amused even Bill Parcells, who was watching from the press box. NFL coaches are believed to be the ones who invented covering their mouths with flip cards while barking plays from the sidelines.

In his final inning, Matsuzaka went to 3-2 on Ramirez, then speared a wicked liner back to the mound. Uggla and Hermida popped to the mound.

On the day, Dice K threw 47 pitches, 31 for strikes. He threw first pitch strikes to ten of the 12 batters he faced. His spring ERA is 0.00. His next game is Sunday against the Orioles in Fort Myers.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/reds...cek_report.html

[bigbilly]

From this spring, Delcarmen sure isn't convincing anyone that he should break camp with the major leaguers (or be a deal-breaker in a Helton trade)...

[Omar's Wacky Neighbor]

NJSoxFan, on Mar 6 2007, 02:21 PM, said:

So, did anyone actually see Matsuzaka pitch, or hear audio? Looks like he did pretty well ...

I'm still streaming it.

Highlight was a screaming liner from Hanley that Matsuzaka snared. DM then bowed toward Hanley.

FWIW, Hanley took MDC deep later on.

[alskor]

gerky, on Mar 6 2007, 02:52 PM, said:

It pains me to read and paste something by CHB, but it's simply a recap in the blog:
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/reds...cek_report.html

jeez, gerky, if you love Shaugnessy so much, why dont you marry him? B))

Is it me, or is our bullpen in possibly worse shape than has been reported?

[Imgran]

I'd rather we find that out now while we can do something about it.

But no, it probably is just you, considering how early we are in ST. There's some warning signs though, particularly about Piniero, MDC and Tavarez.

[Sweet sox]

Add Hansen to that list!

[alskor]

Imgran, on Mar 6 2007, 03:09 PM, said:

I'd rather we find that out now while we can do something about it.

But no, it probably is just you, considering how early we are in ST. There's some warning signs though, particularly about Piniero, MDC and Tavarez.

I typically put ZERO stock in ST results... although interestingly BP just had an article about gigantic slugging leaps in ST and career years... but what worried me about Pineiro is not so much the results but that 1) he looks like crap, 2) his velocity is not as advertised, and 3) The report was his lower arm slot is not adding life to his pitches as we had been told...

So he's the same crappy ol Jo-El. He better look a lot different soon, or he will be gone by May.

I believe MDC and Hansen will start at AAA anyway, so Im not concerned with their results, but with Pineiro sucking, and Timlin hurt we are going to feel the squeeze pretty quickly in April...

This post has been edited by alskor: 06 March 2007 - 06:02 PM

[RedSoxAnni]

 Boston							 ab  r  h  2b  3b  hr  rbi  avg.
 Lugo, Julio ss					   3  0  1   0   0   0	0  .313
  Rogers, Ed ss					   2  2  2   0   0   0	3  .385
 Youkilis, Kevin 1b				   3  0  0   0   0   0	0  .200
  Bailey, Jeff 1b					 3  0  1   1   0   0	2  .250
 Varitek, Jason c					 2  1  0   0   0   0	0  .300
  Moss, Brandon rf					3  2  2   1   0   0	2  .375
 Pena, Wily Mo rf					 3  0  0   0   0   0	0  .250
  McEwing, Joe 2b					 2  2  1   0   0   0	1  .286
 Hinske, Eric 3b					  3  0  1   0   0   0	0  .278
  Spann, Chad 3b					  3  1  2   0   0   0	1  .353
 Pedroia, Dustin 2b				   3  0  1   0   0   0	0  .263
  Brown, Dusty c					  2  1  1   0   0   0	1  .429
 Jimenez, Luis dh					 2  0  0   0   0   0	0  .250
  Ellsbury, Jacoby pr-dh			  3  2  2   0   1   0	1  .375
 Ochoa, Alex lf					   3  0  1   0   0   0	0  .429
  Scales, Bobby lf					2  1  1   0   0   0	1  .333
 Robinson, Kerry cf				   3  1  2   1   0   0	0  .333
  Murphy, David ph-cf				 1  1  0   0   0   0	1  .429
  Totals							 46 14 18   3   1   0   13  
 
  Florida							ab  r  h  2b  3b  hr  rbi  avg.
 Ramirez, Hanley ss				   3  1  1   0   0   1	2  .176
  Andino, Robert ss				   2  1  1   1   0   0	2  .333
 Uggla, Dan 2b						3  0  1   0   0   0	0  .200
  Sorensen, Zach 2b				   2  0  0   0   0   0	0  .154
 Hermida, Jeremy rf				   3  0  0   0   0   0	0  .067
  De Aza, Alejandro rf				2  1  2   2   0   0	1  .636
 Stokes, Jason 1b					 3  0  0   0   0   0	0  .091
  Dillon, Joe 1b					  2  0  0   0   0   0	0  .182
 Borchard, Joe dh					 2  0  1   0   0   0	0  .500
  Carroll, Brett ph-dh				2  0  1   0   0   0	1  .571
 Olivo, Miguel c					  2  0  0   0   0   0	0  .154
  Ashby, Chris c					  2  0  0   0   0   0	0  .167
 Gall, John lf						5  0  1   1   0   0	0  .125
 Seabol, Scott 3b					 3  0  0   0   0   0	0  .235
  Wood, Jason 3b					  1  1  1   0   0   0	0  .600
 Reed, Eric cf						4  2  2   0   0   0	0  .438
  Totals							 41  6 11   4   0   1	6  
 
  Boston			0 0 0  1 0 0  2 1 2  8  -- 14
  Florida		   0 0 0  0 2 0  0 1 3  0  --  6
 
	 E_E.Reed. LOB_Boston 15, Florida 7. 2B_J.Bailey, B.Moss, K.Robinson, 
 R.Andino, A.De Aza 2, J.Gall. 3B_J.Ellsbury. HR_H.Ramirez (1) off 
 M.Delcarmen. SB_J.Lugo (1), E.Rogers (1). GIDP_A.Ochoa. DP_Florida 2 
 (R.Andino, Z.Sorensen and J.Dillon, J.Wood and J.Dillon).
 
  Boston					  IP	  H  R ER BB SO   ERA
 Matsuzaka, Daisuke			3	  2  0  0  1  3   0.00
 Pineiro, Joel				 1	  0  0  0  1  1  10.80
 Delcarmen, Manny (B 1)		1	  2  2  2  0  1  16.88
 Romero, JC					1	  1  0  0  0  1   0.00
 Hernandez, Runelvys		   1	  0  0  0  0  1  18.00
 Burns, Mike				   1	  2  1  1  0  0   3.00
 Hansen, Craig (W 1-0;B 1)	 1	  4  3  3  0  0  27.00
 James, Michael				1	  0  0  0  0  1   0.00
 
  Florida					 IP	  H  R ER BB SO   ERA
 Petit, Yusmeiro			   3	  1  0  0  0  5   5.40
 Obermueller, Wes			  2	  4  1  1  1  1   6.75
 Lindstrom, Matthew			1	  0  0  0  0  0   3.00
 Rodriguez, Felix (B 1)		1	  3  2  2  2  0   4.91
 Pinto, Renyel				 1	  1  1  1  3  0  20.25
 Gregg, Kevin				  1	  2  2  1  1  2   5.40
 Tyler, Scott (L 0-1)		 1-3	 6  7  7  1  1  43.20
 Mildren, Paul				1-3	 1  1  1  3  1  32.40
 Koplove, Mike				1-3	 0  0  0  0  1  13.50
 
 HBP_by R.Pinto (E.Rogers), by K.Gregg (J.McEwing). 
 WP_S.Tyler.

[Imgran]

Mike James, eh? Boston reaching pretty deep into its farm this spring. Did OK though.

I don't see a lot of good news here pitching wise.

BUT!!! The Marlins are the kind of team that is most likely to be tough to beat in Spring Training because they being such a young squad have a lot of players who are struggling to make the team instead of simply working on skills. So I'm not surprised some of our less inspired pitchers struggled a bit.

I'm beginning to be somewhat worried about MDC. I hope he adjusts and proves my concerns baseless.

Hansen gets a mulligan. He was hurt recently and I'm surprised he's pitching at all.

We're not counting on Burns.

Piniero needs a lot more outings like that one to impress me that he should lose but it's worth giving him the chance to do it.

Murphy and Ellsbury are off to very good starts. If Murph in particular keeps it up we'll have no problem finding someone to trade him to for a good return. Which is good because we might need to readjust our relief staff again of some of these guys don't pick it up.

This post has been edited by Imgran: 06 March 2007 - 06:54 PM

[thanman2]

Imgran, on Mar 6 2007, 03:46 PM, said:

I don't see a lot of good news here pitching wise.

1) It's Spring Training. It doesn't mean anything.
2) If it DID mean something, there was a lot of good news pitching wise today. Daisuke was dominant while Piniero and Romero were effective. Hansen shat the bed, and MDC made a mistake to HanRam, but seriously.
3) See #1.

[Jon]

I realize I'm going to get a lot of grief from people for saying this so early, but is it just me, or does Daisuke look like Pedro Martinez in terms of delivery and movement on the ball or what? Now, by no means am implying he's going to be as good as Pedro was in his prime; because for as good as Pedro was around the turn of the millennium (perhaps the best ever for a stretch of a couple of years there), he still has the same delivery and the some of the same movement on his pitches in 2007 and he'd be lucky to have a sub 5.00 ERA in the AL East at this point. Still, looking at clips of the guy, I can't help seeing some sort of resemblance in the way they pitch, even if the results won't be the same.

[Imgran]

I've heard the comparison before and someone here, can't recall who, once did a side-by-side picture comparison that showed a nice similarity.

If so, that should be great news for Daisuke's chances. But I think you can pitch while looking like Pedro without pitching like Pedro too. We'll see.

Also I would be SHOCKED if a healthy Pedro struggled that much in any division in baseball.

This post has been edited by Imgran: 06 March 2007 - 08:20 PM

[Harry Bobbin Manass]

Craig Hansen did not pitch today. That was a mistake in the original boxscore. Mike Burns gave up those 4 runs in the 8th and 9th.

Corrected boxscore

This post has been edited by Harry Bobbin Manass: 06 March 2007 - 10:05 PM

[alskor]

Jon, on Mar 6 2007, 07:29 PM, said:

I realize I'm going to get a lot of grief from people for saying this so early, but is it just me, or does Daisuke look like Pedro Martinez in terms of delivery and movement on the ball or what? Now, by no means am implying he's going to be as good as Pedro was in his prime; because for as good as Pedro was around the turn of the millennium (perhaps the best ever for a stretch of a couple of years there), he still has the same delivery and the some of the same movement on his pitches in 2007 and he'd be lucky to have a sub 5.00 ERA in the AL East at this point. Still, looking at clips of the guy, I can't help seeing some sort of resemblance in the way they pitch, even if the results won't be the same.

No grief, but we can't expect Pedro results... unless Daisuke starts striking out lots of more guys per 9.

[gerky]

Jon, on Mar 6 2007, 07:29 PM, said:

I realize I'm going to get a lot of grief from people for saying this so early, but is it just me, or does Daisuke look like Pedro Martinez in terms of delivery and movement on the ball or what? Now, by no means am implying he's going to be as good as Pedro was in his prime; because for as good as Pedro was around the turn of the millennium (perhaps the best ever for a stretch of a couple of years there), he still has the same delivery and the some of the same movement on his pitches in 2007 and he'd be lucky to have a sub 5.00 ERA in the AL East at this point. Still, looking at clips of the guy, I can't help seeing some sort of resemblance in the way they pitch, even if the results won't be the same.

I think it's fair to say.

There was an article in the Hardball Times recently about this. They compare him to Roy Oswalt, whom I think is also similar to Pedro in his delivery to the plate.

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/...suke-matsuzaka/

http://swingtraining.net/Carlos/Matsuzaka/Mat-Oswalt.gif

Perhaps this deserves discussion in another thread. It's a nice read.