Matsuzaka

Every website recap of his first start will be something along the lines of "He's worth every penny of the 103 million they spent for him after one start" when what they should be saying is "He looked good his first game, lets see how teams start to adjust to him once some film is around and he faces all the teams/players a couple times." Pitchers who switch leagues tend to overachieve at first because the hitters haven't seen them before, kind of like the guy who bangs an amazing girl a few times, then she learns his tricks. Eventually, she catches on that he's not "flush from being hot", the redness is actually a rash, and he's not "whiskey dicked" he's just small dicked. Matsuzaka's not just switching leagues, he's coming all the way across the Pacific. Hitters might catch on that Matsuzaka's whiskey dick is actually just a change in speed on his breaking pitches to slow them down even more, and they'll sit back an extra 1/10 of a second, and his flushness is actually throwing his fastest fastball after 3 consecutive extra slow breaking balls, and they'll be ready for the 96 heater instead of the 93 they've been seeing all game. Major league hitters might eventually catch onto his pitching once they see him and have some tape to study, lets wait to see if he's worth the money until a couple months in the season.

I believe he's the real deal, why? I don't know. Just a feeling. All time great? Who knows, I've never seen him pitch yet, except for his strikeout pitches that they showed on the 6pm SportsCenter that I turned on as his highlights are coming on. Apparently, he does hit 95 in the late innings as well as the early ones, so the stamina's there which is big in the majors (esp. if you have 'pen questions). In this calendar year, the Sox will pay a total of near 70 million to have him on their team, what is actually worth 70 million dollars over the course of 1 year? It's a short list.

*The ability to be invisible for a year
*The ability to stop time
*The ability to have spontaneous cell regeneration
*The ability to paint the future.....

And any other of those superpowers on Heroes, except the becoming a nuclear bomb when you get angry, or that super hearing thing, they just seem annoying. I can't think of anything tangible that over the course of 1 year, I would pay 70 million dollars for, only super powers. Still, for 1 game, people will say Dice-K was worth every penny. And they're the experts.

On a side note, so far this season I've watched parts of 2 Phillies games (missed the first, thought I could watch it at work cause it was on CBS, then got to work and realized "shit, I have to actually watch these kids they're paying me to pay attention to" and boy did that realization suck after I walked in the job after lunch and planned on turning it on). The highlights from what I've seen.

Game 2, turned it on in the bottom of the 8th, Phils up, man on
*Victorino driving someone home with a double for a 2-run lead in the bottom of the 8th
*Victorino thrown out stealing third, which apparently he tried doing on his own accord
*Howard getting thrown out trying to go from first-home on a shot off the wall (2nd and 3rd outs on the basepaths)
*McCann *sp?* game tying 2 run homer in the 9th of Flash (need a real closer from 2007, not 2000)
*The Phillies not threatening from the 9th-11th inning
*Madson giving up a homer in the 11th

Game 3, turned it on after work in the bottom of the 9th, bases loaded, 2 out, 0-0 count
*Ruiz first pitch swinging against a new reliever to fly out and end the game

I turn them on, they start sucking more than white guys playing HORSE. The m8r jinx is in full effect.

m8r