Daisuke Matsuzaka alert (he threw five no-hit innings Monday)

So what you're saying is that, with a little luck, Freel could be among the players who comprise the bottom tier of MLB starting center fielders. I don't think that's the Reds' endgame. I'm pretty certain the club views Freel as someone who's going to fill in until they get a real center fielder and that the player who'll get first crack at taking the job is Hamilton. I like Freel. He gets on base and he makes a nice super-sub type player but he'll get exposed playing center on regular basis.

 

On espn.com's drafts, the average spot Dice-K is being picked is 68.5, the eighth highest among pitchers.

 

I'd say more to the middle, if Freel could stay healthy. But let's just leave the threadjack as agreeing to disagree.

 

My guess, on deadline, is that number is a little high.

That probably factors in very early drafts, when he was still a completely unknown commodity. The more people have seen him pitch, the higher he has moved.

You ain't going to get him at 68 today, is what I'm saying.

 

I have a theory about the gyroball based on the little I've seen on TV of Matsuzaka.

1.) It's a split-fingered fastball that dances a little more than the average splitter.

2.) Batters are saying they've seen it in order to build up the legend. It doesn't actually exist. But players are mocking it and the attention bestowed upon Matsuzaka by going along with it. I mean, fuck, if no one's ever thrown a gyroball, how can you know what it is? This also serves to raise expectations for Matsuzaka, who will surely face tougher opposition in the AL than he has thus far in the Grapefruit League (Pirates twice, if I recall correctly), and hazes the new guy who got $50-odd million before he ever threw a big league pitch.

If you ask me (and you didn't), he'll be the third-best pitcher on that team. And that's not only because I took Schilling and Beckett in the NIAFL draft today.

 

sounds about right on all counts, byh.

 

You can't trust the ESPN drafts ... too many jagoffs getting in on the mock drafts from the public and doing stupid shit — like one guy I witnessed last week picking nothing but Brewers.

 

You're in a league with Bubbler, Gutter or PopeDirkBenedict?

 

Those three do make up 75 percent of the Brewers fans in the world.

 

from verducci's story today:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/tom_verducci/03/27/matsuzaka.gyroball/index.html

 

So, have you seen him throw it?

 

Dice-K, IMO, is going to be a huge risk for the Red Sox. He is a hit or miss kind of pitcher. The Japanese game is completely different than that of the United States. The power hitters here are going to feast on his fastball that has at times looked flat in spring training. Once players get a hold of his wind-up and release points, the people on Yawkey Way are going to have fun chasing down those balls.