Daisuke Matsuzaka, otherwise known as Dice-K, is headed to the disabled list with a sprained elbow.
Pitching is a very unnatural act for human beings, so it is no surprise that the leverage needed would damage the elbow. The problem is that Dice-K hasn’t been that successful since 2008.
Since 2008 he’s been:
- .500 pitcher.
- ERA has doubled.
- Strikeouts decreased by 50%.
What is a professional pitcher to do when they have elbow pain? In Dice-K’s position he had an MRI that showed a sprain. I am not going to argue the fallacy of diagnosing a sprain via MRI, but talk about how Dice-K’s position with the team is perilous.
Here is what the manager Terry Francona had to say:
We’re going to shut him down for a period of whatever time we need. If you put a time period out there, it’s not fair to Daisuke. The doctors don’t even know.
Yeah, that isn’t exactly a warm embrace of get well soon.
Dice-K hasn’t pitched in three weeks, so it’s very easy to second guess the medical staff in Boston. Did they just come up with the MRI idea? Did the MRI show progression of an issue? How aggressive were they in treating his injury? Lots of questions and not many answers.
Dice-K has yet to regain the level of mastery he had when he broke into the league. He needs to bounce back quickly from this injury.
Where did this guy go?