Dice-K is human; leaves game with arm fatigue

[browntown653]

Dice-K pulled by Sox with arm fatigue | MLB.com: News

OAKLAND -- It appears that Daisuke Matsuzaka's workload leading up to and during the World Baseball Classic has caught up to him.

The Red Sox right-hander labored through just one inning before being pulled from Tuesday night's game in Oakland with what the club diagnosed as arm fatigue.

Matsuzaka threw 43 pitches, only 22 of which were strikes. After being staked with a 3-0 lead before even throwing a pitch, Matsuzaka gave up five hits and five runs in that one inning, walking two and striking out none. He faced 10 batters. Despite 10 shutout innings from the bullpen, the Red Sox lost, 6-5, to the A's in 12 innings.

"We talked to him the other day," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "He expressed a couple of days ago some kind of general soreness or fatigue in the back of his shoulder from the [Classic]. We thought we talked it through pretty good in Anaheim and he came out tonight and didn't really have a whole lot. We'll re-evaluate him in the morning."

You figure with all the innings this guy has pitched over his life, there has got to be some some soreness or trouble at some point. The Sox have nice pitching depth, but after the season Dice-K had last year you can't afford to lose a guy like this for the long haul.

[catman]

Sorry, but these guys need to develop more stamina. They should be able handle this sort of work-load. I hate to show my age, but when I was younger, it was nothing for a pitcher to start every 4th day and throw batting practice between starts.
All pitchers go through a "dead-arm" period. They need to learn to win games and throw strikes without their best stuff.

[cjkalt]

Sorry, but these guys need to develop more stamina. They should be able handle this sort of work-load. I hate to show my age, but when I was younger, it was nothing for a pitcher to start every 4th day and throw batting practice between starts.
All pitchers go through a "dead-arm" period. They need to learn to win games and throw strikes without their best stuff.

I don't think you can complain about Dice-K not having stamina, he's thrown over 200 pitch games in Japan and thrown 500 over a 3 day period at one point. Something tells me this is the "I'm sucking" DL excuse but we'll see, but stamina for Dice-K is something u know he has.

[DirtyKash]

The Sox plan to have Justin Masterson take Matsuzaka’s spot in the rotation. Masterson was stretched out as a starter for most of spring training and contributed four innings in Tuesday’s loss. Masterson’s first turn in Matsuzaka’s place will be on Patriots’ Day against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park Monday at 11 a.m.

The Sox also gave consideration to promoting Clay Buchholz from Pawtucket, but Buchholz is experiencing hamstring issues and may not be available.

[love_that_reefer]

To blame this on the WBC is ridiculous. Its not like he was pitching complete games in the WBC, they had limits on how much a pticher could pitch. Retarded reasoning!

[DirtyKash]

It's not as much about the pitch counts as it is about a pitcher getting worked up for "real" baseball several weeks before he's used to, rather than the lax environment of spring training.

[love_that_reefer]

He would be doing the exact same thing he did during the WBC pitching wise. Throwing three innings while getting bullpen work on the side. He's done it before. Not buying it! I agree with CJ and this is a bullshit DL stint.

[Saber]

Man, we haven't seen Daisuke get fatigued since, like, last year.

[rockin500]

He would be doing the exact same thing he did during the WBC pitching wise. Throwing three innings while getting bullpen work on the side. He's done it before. Not buying it! I agree with CJ and this is a bullshit DL stint.

actually the workload IS different for those who pitch in the WBC. They build up quicker than they would normally. I mean, usually you arent throwing 75 pitches the first two times out in ST.

Though to be fair, I dont think the WBC has much to do with Dice-K's arm fatigue problems. maybe its the fact that he has a ton of mileage on him and is going to have these periods from time to time.

and catman, dont be ridicilous. Dice K is the LAST person you can accuse of being babied. look at his pitching log back to his japan days.

[love_that_reefer]

He threw 17 2/3 innings in the WBC and this man has done this before. He knew what he was doing and how to prepare. I don't see this being a problem. Guys all the time come out of ST with a dead arm. And as it was brought up, Dice K has a history of this.