Talking about Matsuzaka
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Feb 06, 2007 
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Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus recently interviewed Mike Plugh about Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Mike, for those of you who don’t know, is a Yankees fan who lives in Japan and has become an expert on the players there. His Matsuzaka Watch blog was a tremendous resource last fall and he also does the Canyon of Heroes blog on the Yanks.
Mike also posts here from time to time. So check out his interview.
Thanks Peter. I had a great talk with Will. He’s a tremendous resource for baseball knowledge of all kinds, holder of the gyroball vault of knowledge, and a great guy. He’s also launching Baseball Prospectus into the multi-media era with his various efforts at BP. I hope everyone enjoys….
I’m too disappointed about the Yankees not signing him to read it, but I did enjoy reading Mike’s blog back when it appeared that the Yankees would be able to secure M’zaka’s rights.
Mike: You’re the man when it comes to objective analysis on Japanese players and Will Carroll’s work speaks for itself. Will has helped me out more than a few times.
Mike is also a new father and enjoys French rap. From time to time he dabbles in Photoshop, and I hear he is a great lover.
I really question Carroll’s boast of being able to teach the gyro to anyone in 10 minutes
I think his info needs to be taken with a grain of salt. He’s had no practicl experiencne in treating sports injuries. He’s tyring to dig out a niche as a sports medicine “guru” and I think it’s really a reach.
He does apparently have contacts that allow him to publish “inside” info, but he has several embarrasing incidents that made him look foolish about breaking news- Matt Lawton as the “superstar” player who was to be busted for PED’s that was supposed to rack MLB
amazing player at a reasonable price (considering Zito’s deal). The Yankees will hurt for not getting him signed.
However, he pitches every 5 days and can do a limited amount of damage. A win is a win.
Much tougher race this year.
I cant get upset about not signing every free agent thats supposedly good. We got bigger things to worry about it here. Dont expect big things from Dice K so soon. The switch into the AL East aint easy. Ask Josh Beckett.
But no one ever accused Josh Beckett of being one of the top 10 pitchers in the world. He was borderline in the NL. Matsuzaka’s ability is so far superior to Beckett just by eyeballing him, they’re not in the same league. Then there’s Clay Davenport’s projections…..
We’ll have to watch and wait, but I know what I’ve seen. Should be fun.
My guess is that M’zaka has the second best season of any AL starter, finishing behind Santana.
btw, I hope he sucks and have have to eat my words.
I hope he wins 20 games and creates a windfall of Japanese talent to come over and win a World Series.
my sidebar to that hope, however, is that all 20 wins are against the column of “anyone but the Yanks.” Against us, he should go 0-5 with a 6.66 ERA.
thanks for the knowledge, Mike.
how come you couldn’t throw some of your influence our way and get Cash to post 51.111111111112 million?
heh.