Wine believes Matsuzaka to be strong all season

The attention being given to Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is truly astounding. The attention is not just from the Japanese media who are bulging the walls of spring training facilities.

Bobby Wine is a former major league All-Star infielder and a longtime coach and scout.

As he celebrates his 50th year in the game, now as an advance scout, he headed over to the Red Sox camp to get a look for himself.

Here is his report on the Sox attraction.

“He’s throwing at 93 [mph] with his fastball and that is probably where he will be for the season. He is in great shape and ready to pitch,” said Wine. “There is no reason to believe he will be any faster, and that’s fine.”

“He has a good breaking ball and that ‘gyro’ pitch we all heard so much about is a changeup that breaks away from righthanders,” Wine continued.

“He is not Roger Clemens or Nolan Ryan,” Wine said, “but he seems to have great command of his pitches and is already hitting his spots.”

“There is always the issue of coming to the majors from Japan and having to pitch in a five-man rotation,” said Wine. “Over there they work once a week, but what people forget is that they will throw a hundred or more pitches in a sideline workout on a day off.”

Wine noted, “Over here our pitchers work their start and maybe reach 100 pitches and then they don’t want to do anything for days. In Japan, a starter will go to the bullpen after a start and throw a full game’s worth of pitches and then do the same thing the next day.”

Wine believes the arm strength of Japanese pitchers is underestimated for that reason and he is less inclined to believe they have trouble pitching every fifth day.

“He is a control pitcher, a slow worker, and has a deliberate windup with the ball exploding out of his hand at the release point,” said Wine.

If there are any holes in his performance, Matsuzaka will have been found out by opening day.

All of the American League teams have their best scouts watching him in person and every team is taping his spring starts to detect any advantage to be found.

There are no secrets in this day of immediate imaging.

The other matter Wine notes is what is being heard all around spring training. The middle relievers have become the focal point of the game. There are not enough of them to go around, so every team is pushing their starters to get through the sixth.

Japanese pitchers take great pride in that and Matsuzaka will push to be that kind of a quality starter. That saves the pen, motivates other starters to push their outings, and results in W’s.

It’s only spring training, but the book is getting very thick on the Sox starter. As with all else in the game, no matter how much info you have, you still have to execute.

In other words, you still have to hit it.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.