THE LIES DICE-K TOLD ME: Dice-K admits hid injury from Red Sox

Dice-K Matsuzaka Admits to Japanese Tabloid He Purposely Hid Leg Injury from Red Sox incurred while training with the Japanese WBC team.

Apparently Dice-K still doesn't get it that comments made in Japanese still manage to reach the ears of stupid gaijin.

In an interview with Japanese tabloid rag, Friday, Matsuzaka disclosed that the troubles started with a leg injury incurred while training with the Japanese WBC team, and due to poor mechanics, led to the shoulder injury which placed him on the Red Sox disabled list. However, rather than come clean, Dice-K withheld information on the leg injury to the Red Sox.

The translated comments from the Boston Globe can be found here:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2010/01/matsuzaka_admit.html

Matsuzaka hid leg injury from Sox

Posted by Peter Abraham, Globe Staff January 9, 2010 05:42 PM

The disconnect that existed between the Red Sox and Daisuke Matsuzaka may have gone deeper than first realized.

The righthander told the Japanese magazine Friday that he suffered a leg injury while training for the WBC that he kept hidden from the team. The injury altered his mechanics and led to the shoulder injury that put him on the disabled list.

This is not an injury the Red Sox were aware of, a source confirmed. This is speculation, but based on Matszuaka's description, it sounds like a groin strain, which is a troublesome injury for a pitcher.

Some excerpts from the story, as translated by friend of the blog Daigo Fujiwara, a Globe staff graphic designer.

"Early on in January 2009, I hurt my right inner thigh. I consider movement around my hip joint a crucial part of my pitching motion. It happened during my exercise to strengthen my hip joint that I incorporated into training since 2008. I may have pushed myself just a little too hard. It wasn't the pain that killed me, but it was the regrets and guilt that filled my mind. It was the time to start building up for the season, but I hurt myself because of my own doing.

"I had to make a decision whether this injury was serious enough to withdraw from the World Baseball Classic. But my body was functioning well, and by taking anti-inflammatory medicine I can tolerate the pain. So I continued training, but actually it was even hard just to jog. .

Didn't trainers and coaches notice?

"I didn't let them. I didn't want to be the center of concern for people. I didn't tell the trainers. Fortunately, I was in charge of my own training, so if it started to hurt, I could adjust to not hurt myself. But pitching while hiding the injury was very difficult. Even when I didn't feel the pain, my body was holding back because it sensed the danger. So, my pitching motion was more of standing straight up and throwing with my upper body, relying on my shoulder strength more than usual.

"(The WBC) was hard. I relied on my wits and my shoulder strength. I had to be creative. I varied the paces between the pitches; I used the different kind of slider that I usually don't throw.

"My plan after the WBC was to heal myself while keeping my turn in rotation. But the condition didn't get better as the season went on. After my first stint on the DL in May, I was very hard on myself. Because I got plenty of rest, my shoulder was much stronger, so I could still get up there in velocity. But I couldn't use my lower body well, and I could not use my full body to generate the power. My fastball was not effective, therefore I lost effectiveness of my other pitches. In hindsight, it was impossible to continue faking the whole season, it was too much mental stress. But the Red Sox struggled a little bit in the beginning of the season so I wanted to help the team as much as I could.

"I didn't want to show my weaknesses. I didn't want them to think I was making excuses. I would rather be criticized than ridiculed for making excuses. I repeat, I really didn't want to be the center of concern for people. I believe when you say you are sick, you become sick. Sure I appreciate that you are concerned about me, but I don't even like to be wished good luck about my health.

Matsuzaka also talked about his being critical of the Red Sox, which led to a series of meetings.

"(That) was a very important event for me. I think I got through to (the team) that shoulder strength and pitching stamina are two different things. They have generously agreed that I can have long bullpen sessions as long as I can pass the measurement for shoulder strength. The reason I was able to come back strong after my second DL stint was because my thigh was healed and I was able train with the long bullpen session. It was not because I lost weight. If by losing weight you become a better pitcher, I'd lose much more. It is not that simple. I have re-started the exercise to strengthen my hip joint again.

"I am very sorry for making you worry. I assure you that the (2010) season will be a great season. I am going to redeem what I lost in 2009. With my health back, I am confident and determined to produce this year. I will (try my best to) become world champion once again."

--------------------

Interesting comments by Matsuzaka. Signing John Lackey may be a smarter move than first realized.

JAPANESE WASHOUTS TO RETURN HOME?

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/sb20090726wg.html

Sunday, July 26, 2009

BASEBALL BULLET-IN

Kobayashi, Yabuta might have better luck pitching back home

By WAYNE GRACZYK

It is obvious 2009 has not been a great year for Japanese pitchers in the major leagues. Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Boston Red Sox and Koji Uehara of the Baltimore Orioles have spent a lot of time on the disabled list, while Kenshin Kawakami of the Atlanta Braves has posted a losing record of 5-6 through games of Wednesday.

Hiroki Kuroda of the Los Angeles Dodgers is also behind the .500 ball at 3-5 with a 4.73 ERA in 11 games.

Hopefully, they will all get healthy, bounce back and make significant contributions to their respective teams before the season ends. For at least two others whose attempts at finding success at the major league level have not panned out, it may be time to call it a day, to look back with pride for trying, come home and help a Central or Pacific League team.

Former Chiba Lotte Marines close Masahide Kobayashi was released by the Cleveland Indians last week, and media reports indicated his agent was still trying to get him hooked on with another major league club. Instead, he should follow the example of Kazuo Fukumori whose attempt at playing regularly in the majors with the Texas Rangers never materialized.

Fukumori, the Rakuten Eagles closer in 2007, left Tohoku for Texas in 2008 but struggled through a season and a half. Finally, he apparently saw the writing on the wall, realized he is not MLB compatible and returned to Sendai, back with the Eagles.

Kobayashi should see the light, too, and the same goes for Yasuhiko Yabuta, another ex-Lotte reliever who, like his former teammate, has not really done anything for the Kansas City Royals since departing Chiba for the American Midwest at the end of 2007.

The 35-year-old Kobayashi has seen more of Columbus, Ohio, than Cleveland during the past 18 months. His major league record with the Indians does include 57 appearances, but he leaves behind a 4-5 won-loss record, six saves and a 4.53 ERA.

In 10 American League games this year, he was 0-0 with no saves and an ERA of 8.38. With the Triple-A Clippers, he was 2-2 with a save and a 4.66 ERA in 18 games prior to his release. Obviously, he was nowhere near the pitcher he was in 2005 with Lotte when he recorded a Pacific League-leading 29 saves in 46 games, along with a 2.58 ERA for the Japan Series champion Marines.

Middle reliever and setup man Yabuta (36), meanwhile, pitched in 31 games for manager Trey Hillman's Royals last season, compiling a 1-3 mark with a 4.78 ERA. This year at Triple-A Omaha, Yabuta is 1-1 with a 3.82 ERA in 19 appearances.

After losing both Kobayashi and Yabuta to free agency and the majors last year, and seeing situational lefty reliever Soichi Fujita become a free agent and defect to the Yomiuri Giants, Chiba Lotte manager Bobby Valentine indicated there was no doubt his club was damaged by their absence.

"Not so much Fujita, but not having Kobayashi and Yabuta in the bullpen was huge," said Valentine at mid-season in 2008, as the Marines failed to make the Pa League postseason Climax Series, and the outlook for this season's playoff qualification does not look that great, either.

It would seem Kobayashi and Yabuta could improve the bullpens of several teams in Japan, and they should be more comfortable here than in Columbus or Omaha.

The list of native players who left Japanese ball for a crack at MLB but returned to their native country is getting to be a long one. It includes pitchers Hideki Irabu, Masato Yoshii, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Kazuhisa Ishii, Shingo Takatsu, Masao Kida and Fukumori, and position players Tsuyoshi Shinjo and Tadahito Iguchi.

Is it not time for Kobayashi and Yabuta to join them by giving up the major league dream and coming home where they belong?

There are a lot of teams here who could use them.

* * * * *

Contact Wayne Graczyk at: wayne@JapanBall.com

The Nippon Robotic Baseball (NRB) League

The NRB is not quite yet reality, but given the accomplishments by Japanese researchers, Japan could be the first country to field such an endeavor.

The Associated Press reported that a Japanese researcher at the University of Tokyo, Masatoshi Ishikawa and his team have developed a baseball batting robot that works for balls thrown to it at slow speeds, but with great accuracy. It can bat the balls into a basket at a desired location.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/24/AR2009072401104.html

A pitching robot throws a ball made of polystyrene against a batting robot, right, during a demonstration at University of Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan, Friday, July 24, 2009. The both robots have been developed by Information Science Technology Prof. Masatoshi Ishikawa. The pitching robot can throw 40 kph (25mph) strike balls at one-meter (3 feet 3 inches) by 0.8-meter (2 feet 6 inches) strike zone set at 3.5-meter (11 feet 5 inches) away with almost 100 percent accuracy and the batting robot can hit them with more than 90 percent accuracy if hey were thrown in to the strike zone.


Japanese professor creates baseball-playing robots
The Associated Press Friday, July 24, 2009 7:47 AM

TOKYO -- Look out Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka. A pair of baseball-playing robots that can pitch and hit with incredible results have been developed in Japan.

The pitching robot, with its three-fingered hand, can throw 90 percent of its pitches in the strike zone, won't need any relief from the bullpen and never asks for a pay rise.

The batting robot, which has a sensor to determine if pitches are strikes or balls, hits balls in the strike zone almost 100 percent of the time, doesn't swing at pitches outside the strike zone, and is guaranteed to pass all drug tests.

The two robots were created by University of Tokyo professor Masatoshi Ishikawa.

"The demand level of the robotics technology of each robot is very high," Ishikawa said. "What was difficult was to create a mechanism to satisfy such a high level of demand."

The pitching robot throws a plastic foam ball at 40 kilometers per hour (25 mph), but Ishikawa is hoping to increase the speed to 150 kph (93 mph) and make it able to throw off-speed pitches like curves and sliders.

Ishikawa is also working on getting the batting robot to be able to hit to all parts of the field.

The robots don't resemble humans but instead the type of robots on a car assembly line.

Japan boasts one of the leading robotics industries in the world, and the government is pushing to develop the industry as a road to growth. Automaker Honda has developed the child-sized Asimo, which can walk and talk.

Another Japanese researcher down at Hiroshima University, Dr. Idaku Ishii has already developed a robot able to hit a pitch coming at speeds up to 300 kilometers per hour ...

http://www.engadget.com/2005/06/06/japanese-baseball-robot-can-hit-a-300km-h-pitch-whut

Japanese baseball robot can hit a 300km/h pitch, whut?

by Barb Dybwad, posted Jun 6th 2005 at 6:05AM


Hiroshima University associate professor Idaku Ishii has developed a robot able to cope with some serious fastball action, able to hit a pitch coming at speeds up to 300 kilometers per hour. We're pretty impressed with this, considering we routinely strike out during heated Engadget Whiffle Ball matches. The robot manages such uber-skilldom by instantly analyzing the imaging results from its precision cameras to determine the balls' trajectory, then whammo, socking the living daylights out of it (that's the technical terminoloy, honest). All of which is part of a plan to replace all humans in the sport of baseball with either mechanoids or cartoons, saving the industry millions in salaries and legal fees.