The Dice-K Debacle

What I’ll be watching this week is the aftermath of the critical comments made by Daisuke Matsuzaka. The 100 million dollar man took aim at his employer, the Boston Red Sox, saying their conditioning program has resulted in his current shoulder problems.
Dice-K is upset the Red Sox don’t let him throw everyday in between starts as he did in Japan. He said he was successful in his first years with the Sox because he had built up such a strong shoulder in Japan, but now it’s getting progressively weaker with the Sox stringent program. An interesting analysis, considering the Red Sox are one of the few teams whose pitchers have suffered no major arm injuries in recent years. You’re right Dice-K, I’m sure it had nothing to do with the World Baseball Classic, which put high stress innings on your shoulder early in the year, when you should have been at stress-free spring training.
Dice-K’s real crime wasn’t being upset; it was airing his dirty laundry publicly. Terry Francona is renowned for keeping player issues in the clubhouse, and out of the media. Dice-K dishing out dirt to the public is a total betrayal of Francona’s “behind closed doors” policy, which most players revere. The normally quiet Sox brass (namely Francona, John Farrell and Theo Epstein), were noticeably stung, and even more noticeably vocal, after the story broke. The common theme in all of their responses? Disappointment.
This is a sad chapter in what started as a fairy tale story. Matsuzaka was the conquering hero from Japan, embraced with open arms in this city before he ever threw a pitch. Now he has the Red Sox fans and front office scratching their head, questioning whether or not the Dice-K experiment will work after his out of left field outburst. The bottom line is this. The Red Sox are your employer Dice-K. They pay you a lot of money, and you get a lot of perks. If you can’t find a way to keep your issues in the clubhouse, you may find yourself out of it.