Just arrived at City of Palms Park after chasing a story for tomorrow’s paper. It is quite the scene thanks to the scheduled 5 p.m. Daisuke Matsuzaka press conference. Upon driving up to the park the concourse outside the stadium is littered with television trucks. Inside we see one of the first changes to the park, with brand-new bleachers in back of the right field fence. I suspect if they sold seats in the parking lot with the promise of the sounds of a real-live Red Sox game they would be a hot item.
They seem to be tempting fate with this press conference as the area for Matsuzaka is set up on top of the third base dugout, complete with Funai Electric backdrop, of course. But the rain continues to fall, putting the man of the hour in weather’s way (although the litany of cameras and microphones in front of the press conference table are under shelter). He is also going to be sitting dangerously close to the edge of the dugout roof. I would say they aren’t sufficiently protecting their investment, but I suspect that due diligence will lead to some intern standing on the dugout steps behind Daisuke ready to spot (kind of like a trampoline in gym class).
Just realized — if some of these Matsuzaka followers had their way the garbage bags which are currently protecting the seat Matsuzaka will be sitting on could very well be up for Internet auction before day’s end.
While I’m waiting I’ll answer a few questions posted earlier:
1. A few of the questions revolved around the Red Sox putting Lenny Dinardo on waivers in order to put J.D. Drew on the 40-man roster. Lenny is a great guy who might find a niche in Oakland (which claimed him), but his two purposes on this team would be either as a long man or lefty specialist and the Sox feel they have better options on both fronts (see Okajima, Breslow, Romero, Snyder, Tavarez).
In the long role, I know that some questioned hanging on to Kyle Snyder, but you have to look at it this way. Snyder seemed to find a comfort zone in that long relief role, and, perhaps more importantly, got a chance to approach his offseason workouts without worrying about rehabbing an injury for the first time since the beginning of his pro career. He could just focus on baseball-related training, and he feels that might be a huge plus.
In terms of a lefty specialist Dinardo has given up 34 hits in 25 innings against lefty hitters over his career, succumbing to a .333 batting average against. Not ideal for that spot.
2. There was a question about Clay Buchholz’s change-up command. I was surprised that the prospect had so much confidence in talking about his change after just picking it up last season, but he seemed pretty adamant that the pitch was the real deal. I haven’t seen him live since he first came into pro ball, but I have talked to his manager for the past two seasons, new Sox first base coach Luis Alicea, and he insists that both Buchholz and his change-up are the real deal. Knowing Luis, that’s good enough for me.
Will get the rest of the questions in next post, which will come after our man of the hour makes his appearance. In that one I will give the low-down as to if Matsuzaka looks at all overweight, which to my knowledge isn’t the case. In fact, pitching coach John Farrell said that one of the first impressions he had upon meeting Daisuke for the first time was how thick his lower half was (usually a plus for a pitcher).
Talk soon.
