BoSox Could Be D'oh Sox After Matsuzaka Fiasco

Way back in the early 1920's, Lefty Grove was a dominant minor league pitcher for a Baltimore team. Back then, major league teams did not have minor league affiliates, so when a minor leaguer was thought to be good enough to play in the bigs, they had to be purchased by a big-league club.

Such was the case for Lefty Grove, arguably the greatest left-handed pitcher to ever lace them up. He had helped his minor league team win their league title 5 years in a row, and was considered untouchable by his team's owners. Untouchable that is, unless someone were to meet their price of 100, 000 U.S. dollars for Grove's services. Grove consistently won over 25 games a season for the minor league Baltimore Orioles and soon was considered one of the best pitchers in baseball, even before he ever threw a pitch in the big leagues.

Then in 1925, the Philadelphia Athletics needed a pitcher, and they targeted Grove. They ponied up $100,500 to obtain Grove and were not disappointed as he went on to lead the American League in strikeouts as a rookie despite posting a rather pedestrian 10-13 record in an injury-plagued season. That would be it for the bad seasons though, as Grove went on to settle down in 1926 and won the first of a record nine ERA titles with a mark of 2.51. Then in 1927 he won 20 games for the first time, and a year later led the league with 24 wins.

Now, what does all this mean, why am I telling you this, and what does it have to do with the Red Sox?

Everything.

The Red Sox recently bid $51.1 million to negotiate with the Seibu Lions for the services of Japanese star Daisuke Matsuzaka. That ridiculous figure simply allows the Red Sox to negotiate a contract with Matsuzaka, if they cannot sign him, he goes back to Japan until next year. I recently heard on "The Big Show" that the $100,500 the Philadelphia A's spent in 1925 for Grove equates to about $1.2 million in today's economic climate. Now, that means Matsuzaka should be 50 TIMES BETTER than Hall of Famer Lefty Grove. They both had to be purchased from their teams to get to the majors, and both were/are considered to be the best available pitchers at the time, but there is certainly more riding on Matsuzaka's success, and there will certainly be more people watching him progress, and waiting for him to fail.

Even Grove struggled in his first year in the majors, but still had a decent amount off success leading the league in K's as a rookie, but Matsuzaka will need to do more than just have minor success or he may be headed for disaster.

With the ridiculous, often-times irrational Boston media and fans, Matsuzaka will need to do more than just lead the league in K's, in fact anything less than leading the league in era and wins may have to be considered a let down. Consider that even after the Bosox put out $51 million just to talk to Matsuzaka, they still have to shell out somewhere around $50 million to sign him for a few years....that makes Matsuzaka a $100 million man. Guys like that cannot fail, they can't even have sub-par seasons, or months for that matter, without getting blasted for not living up to their supposed value. Take Alex Rodriguez for example, this season he hit .290, with 35 homers, and 121 RBI, and was almost run out of New York, constantly hearing trade rumors and boos from his own home crowd. Chances are Matsuzaka will have some sort of grace period before fans and media types get all over him, but once the honeymoon is over he better be extremely productive or his legacy in the bigs could go the way of Hideo Nomo.

The Red Sox should be applauded for their aggressiveness in going after Matsuzaka, but if it doesn't work, they will look like fools, as well as put the organization in a financial quandary. Matsuzaka looked real good at the WBC, but in retrospect, a lot of those teams were not up to the caliber of a major league roster. Some were very good, but not all. Also, while Matsuzaka rolled through the WBC and was easily the most dominant pitcher, others that dominated went on to really struggle in the regular season, such as Jae Seo and Daniel Cabrera. Both those guys pitched like Cy Young in the WBC, then went on to crap the bed in the regular season with the teams that actually pay them for their services. This fact does not bode well for Red Sox Nation.

The Red Sox have gambled on Matsuzaka, and we have to wait until April to see if that gamble pans out, but anything less than complete and total dominance will be a shame. The amount of money surrounding this guy has made it almost impossible for him to succeed. No matter how good he does, I'm sure some people will say it is not enough. I truly hope he does well and the Red Sox have an ACE for years to come, but I highly doubt it.

Lefty Grove led the league in ERA nine times, no pitcher has ever done that, no lefty has ever even come close to that. He also once struck out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Bob Meusel in the ninth inning on ten pitches. Meusel saw the only ball. If Matsuzaka can quiet the mighty bats of the Yankees the way Grove did, it may not matter what he is being paid. His legend will grow and be cemented in RSN lore forever, so watch out Jeter, Rodriguez, Sheffield, and Matsui. Matsuzaka is coming to America, and has some big shoes to fill.