Well, I did check out Fred Claire's story. Didn't the Dodgers have a Greg Hansell who pitched briefly for them during Claire's GM tenure?
Otherwise, ol' Fred has written a fairly sensible cautionary note here. Personally, I think the Japanese style of pitching (which we saw in LA with Nomo and Ishii, but not so much with Saito, who seems to know how to go after hitters) could not be better calculated to drive American fans nuts: nibbling, getting deep into the count, throwing a cartload of pitches, and all without any apparent anxiety that this will eventually come back to bite you on the hindquarters.
The expectations for Daisuke will be enormous just based on the amount of money that he's commanded (forget the temperament of Boston fans). I have a feeling that he'll start off well, but after the league has seen his stuff once or twice, they'll start working the count on him. At which point the fans at Fenway will start wishing that the Sox had spent all that money for Matsuzaka beef at the ballpark rather than Matsuzaka the pitcher.
How bout posting this one too?
http://www.progressiveboink.com/dugout/archive/nick98.htm
I like the way Cliff thinks.
Otherwise, ol' Fred has written a fairly sensible cautionary note here. Personally, I think the Japanese style of pitching (which we saw in LA with Nomo and Ishii, but not so much with Saito, who seems to know how to go after hitters) could not be better calculated to drive American fans nuts: nibbling, getting deep into the count, throwing a cartload of pitches, and all without any apparent anxiety that this will eventually come back to bite you on the hindquarters.
The expectations for Daisuke will be enormous just based on the amount of money that he's commanded (forget the temperament of Boston fans). I have a feeling that he'll start off well, but after the league has seen his stuff once or twice, they'll start working the count on him. At which point the fans at Fenway will start wishing that the Sox had spent all that money for Matsuzaka beef at the ballpark rather than Matsuzaka the pitcher.
http://tinyurl.com/yl7bee
The transactions section is lengthy.
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