Daisuke Matsuzaka is still going. The 40-year-old righty signed a one-year deal with the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball earlier this week, according to the Japan Times, rejoining the club for which he starred from 1999-2006. Matsuzaka was with the Lions in 2020 as well, although he spent the year rehabbing from back surgery that prevented him from pitching. The former Red Sox right-hander returned to NPB in 2015 and has since pitched with the SoftBank Hawks and Chunichi Dragons. He’s thrown just 5 1/3 innings since the conclusion of the 2018 season due to injuries, but he’ll hope for a healthier go of it as his career comes full circle with the Lions in 2021.
Some more notes on former big leaguers, the KBO and NPB…
- Former Athletics right-hander Daniel Mengden has held negotiations with a club in the Korea Baseball Organization, per a report from South Korea’s Naver Sports (Korean language link). There’s no indication a deal has been completed yet. Mengden spent his first five professional seasons in Oakland, where he pitched to a 4.64 ERA/4.58 FIP and posted 6.66 K/9 against 3.03 BB/9 over 302 2/3 innings. He only threw 12 1/3 frames last year after undergoing three offseason surgeries (two to repair an intestinal issue, another on his elbow). The A’s outrighted the 27-year-old in September.
- The KBO’s KT Wiz have signed outfielder Zoilo Almonte to a one-year, $525K guarantee with up to $250K in incentives, Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency relays. The ex-Yankees farmhand, 31, spent the previous three seasons with Chunichi, with which he slashed .316/.375/.484 and hit 31 home runs in 967 plate appearances. As Yoo notes, Almonte will replace 2020 KBO MVP Mel Rojas Jr., who left KT for the NPB’s Hanshin Tigers earlier this month.
- Retired righty Suk-min Yoon is attempting to become a professional golfer in Korea, Yoo reports. Yoon was a highly successful starter with the KBO’s Kia Tigers, which led the Orioles to sign him to a contract worth a guaranteed $5.75MM over three years entering the 2014 campaign. He never threw a pitch for the Orioles, though, instead spending the year at Triple-A, and the O’s released him in 2015. Yoon returned to the Tigers and pitched in 2015, ’16 and ’18, but he hung up his cleats after a shoulder injury derailed his career.
long live Dice-K
A legend
Dice won 2007 ALCS Game 7 with a decent performance. Other than that, forgettable on the mound. One of the most over-hyped players this century.
Agree, Fever Pitch, but his downfall was mainly not listening to the Sox and participating in the World Baseball Classic. He was already overworked at that point and probably aged his body 5 years. Never the same after that.
Good point about the WBC. Also what really irritated the Sox is that Dice always did his own thing, he was basically un-coachable. He followed his own training regime rather than the coaches, and he refused to challenge hitters as he had a habit of always trying to paint which meant high pitch counts. That’s why he was basically a 5-inning pitcher.
Dice-K was easily the most overhyped and overpaid international acquisition in MLB history. The Red Sox had to pay Dice-K’s former team over $50 million just for the right to negotiate with him. Then they had to pay Dice-K much more on top of that. They got one 18 win season and pretty much nothing else. Dice-K’s first season with the Red Sox will go down as the last time he was any good as a pitcher regardless of his current attempts at over 40 years of age. What a waste of money.
2007
W-L 15-12
ERA 4.40
IN 204 2/3
SO 201
WHIP 1.324
2008
W- L 18-3
ERA 2.90
IN 167 2/3
SO 154
WHIP 1.324
Two decent years out of 6 for the grand total of $102 million. On the bright side it was better return than Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez, Rusney Castillo, Allen Craig…
Six year total 50-37, 4.52 ERA, 668.1 Innings, 609 SO, 321 BB (ouch),1.418 WHIP (ouch)
Dice-K hasn’t even been good in Japan in recent years. It’s been 12 years since he was good anywhere.
In 2008 it seemed like Dice-K was always leaving games after 5 1/3 or 5 2/3 innings, so to win 18 games he had good run support EARLY in games, and he had a very effective bullpen hold leads for 3 to 4 innings regularly.
In 2007 Hideki Okajima may have been even more important than Dice-K to the 2007 WS effort as he was the most used (games 66, innings 69.0), and most effective ERA 2.22, setup man out of the bullpen.
The gyro ball! Famous in Japan, infamous in the States.
we need more gyroballers
So do you pronounce it “JI-ro” ball or “HE-ro” ball?
The latter if it’s also on a menu at a Greek restaurant
Daniel Mengden is the Devil confirmed.
i can easily picture him evily twisting his moustache
Retired Korean league pitcher wants to play professional golf – in Korea – absolute proof of a slow news day in the world of baseball.
Happy holidays all! Here’s to a new season that’s as near to a full schedule as possible!
i mean its not just some KBO guy, its a KBO guy who once was under a MLB contract.
Almonte killed in in the NPB, cant imagine he wolnt do even better in Korea.
“He’s thrown just 5 1/3 innings since the conclusion of the 2018 season due to injuries, but he’ll hope for a healthier go of it as his career comes full circle with the Lions in 2021.”
Time for Dice-K to stop robbing ball clubs of their dollars and retire already. Albeit, it is the team’s fault for resigning him.
Nah let Dice-K do his thing for as long as he can
At this point he is a side show to help sell tickets. If Dice-K helps sell tickets to the point it covers his salary then it is a plus for the team.
he’s produced solidly in their minors and hasnt gotten a long shot in the majors since he’s returned to prove he doesnt belong yet.
I honestly think I’d’ve appreciated Matsuzaka if he hadn’t pitched for the red sox.
Stylistically, I really like watching the NPB pitchers that make the transition to MLB. Pitchers with 5, 6, or more offerings are becoming so much less common in MLB.
There’s so much emphasis currently on “mirroring”, simplifying repertoires, max effort delivery, etc that it almost seems a lot of pitchers are becoming “standard issue pitching product”. Ya know? I understand that from a mass production viewpoint just teaching FB, slider, change is going to be terribly efficient. It’s just sorta making the game a little more predictable & may actually be holding back certain of the elite/upper level pitchers from being as dominant as they could become.
And… what exactly is the gyro ball?
Merry Christmas.
I may be mistaken but i think the easiest way to describe it is throwing a baseball but as if it were a football. That type of grip and pulling motion
Couldn’t agree more.
I honestly thought Dice K was retired. I wish him luck. To be 40 and still pitching is amazing.
The saddest part of all this is that the Red Sox would probably welcome DiceK back given the current state of their starting corps.