Daisuke Matsuzaka Seeing Red About Boston's Training Methods

It's been a disappointing year for Daisuke Matsuzaka. He's alternated between getting crushed by opposing hitters and cooling his heels on the disabled list with issues in his right shoulder. The conventional wisdom has been that both things have been caused by his participation in the World Baseball Classic, but the pitcher offered another take on Monday.

WEEI.com reports, via a Japanese article, that Matsuzaka thinks he isn't throwing enough in between starts. That's common practice in Japan, but not in the United States. It's also not common practice here to say that pitchers of different ethnic and racial groups should have specific training, but Matsuzaka believes that American training techniques aren't suitable for Japanese arms.

"Until now, many Japanese players have joined the majors, but they usually only lasted for two or three years. I realized from my own experience that this was not due to their individual abilities but because of the difference in training methods," Matsuzaka said in the article. "If someone doesn't act, the way people think in the Majors would never be changed. I want them to understand this, not only for my sake, but for the sake of future Japanese players in the Major Leagues"

It's tempting to say that the Sox should just let Matsuzaka prepare exactly as he did in Japan. They were happy enough with the results to spend in excess of $100 million to bring him to the U.S. and sign him to pitch for them, after all, so why fix what wasn't broken in the first place? It seems akin to players with odd batting stances or shooting styles in basketball. They look odd, it's not how you'd teach someone to hit or shoot but it works so you let it go.

When it comes to pitchers, though, baseball isn't crazy about unorthodox approaches. Read Jim Bouton's Ball Four and you'll find resistance to throwing more often to make sure his knuckler was responding the way he wanted it to. Pitching it as a racial or ethnic difference is a non-starter, but it makes sense that a change in routine could have a negative impact on Dice-K's performance.

The Sox have had a lot of success managing pitcher injuries and have Dice-K signed for three more years, so they're naturally apprehensive to move too wildly in a different direction. They're on the hook for the money either way, though, and have enough pitching depth that it might be worth a shot.