Chuck HFor Dice-K, Time Is Now Or... Sayonara
June 12th 2009 13:11
Remember when the Dice Man came to town? It was just glorious. The sushi bars were packed and middle aged white guys who live in their Mama’s basements were fumblin’ and bumblin’ with the old chop sticks trying to pick up a piece of sushi for the first time in their lives. It was Dice-K mania! A new era beginning in Beantwown. If you ran into Dice-K on the street, it was “Konnichiwa! Hajimemashite!! Ganbatte ne!!” (That’s, “Hello! Nice to meet you!! Good Luck!”) Now it’s more like… “Sumimasen, toire wa doko desu ka? Choshi ga warui desu!” (That’s “Excuse me, where is the toilet? I feel sick!) That’s the general feeling of Red Sox fans right now when Dice-K’s taking the hill. It’s tough to watch. Over and over again, putting runners on via the walk, creating jam after jam and trying to walk away unscathed. You know, I should slap myself because last year I was telling everyone, “hey it doesn’t matter how many jams he gets himself into, he gets out of them all the time.” He was incredible at playing the Houdini role of making baserunners vaporize into thin air after he loaded the bases time and time again. The end justifies the means, right? Wrong… you can only play with fire for so long until you get burned. Damn it, somebody told me that when I was younger. Was it that time I was dating that girl tha..…..Nah.. let’s move on. My point is, last year he got away with it all. He walked five or more batters eight times in 2008. He walked three or more twelve times. He led the AL by leaving 81 PERCENT of the baserunners he allowed, stranded. That’s amazing. It can’t happen often though--as we’re finding out this year.
There are too many young arms in this unbelievably young talent pool of pitching that the Boston organization possesses. Clay Bucholz and Michael Bowden are knocking at the door and can’t be kept down much longer. Not to mention John Smoltz is ready to return next week. It’s quite a dilemma. Not much they can do either, Dice-K is signed through 2012 and he has a no trade clause. Hopefully he comes around, but in my opinion, this is Dice-K. Sometimes he’ll get out of his jams and sometimes he won’t, but make no mistake, they’ll always be jams. We’ve seen it for too long of a sample size now. His control problems are here to stay.
Shoot, how’d you like to be Hideki Okajima right now? What a poor slob he is huh? Dice-K is going to make between $52 and $60 million American dollars throughout this six year deal. Dice has his own massage therapist, physical therapist, interpreter, personal assistant, special housing and accommodations for wifey Matsuzaka, along with 80-90 flights all paid for by the Red Sox throughout the length of his contract. Poor Hideki has arguably been more valuable to this pitching staff over the past 2 years and he’s not smelling any of that personal TLC that the Dice Man receives as part of his contract.
Well, “Ganbatte ne” (once again, if you weren’t paying attention earlier, that’s “good luck”) Dice-K, but quite frankly, so far you just haven’t lived up to the hype unless you’re pitching in the World Baseball Classic.
Chuck Hanf
Two Cents From Beantown
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