Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka Has Setback

OK, let's not panic. There's no need to. Daisuke Matsuzaka, the projected number four starter in the Boston Red Sox rotation, is currently ailing. He has had pain on both sides of his upper back. This discomfort is most likely due to his off season conditioning program in Arizona. Matsuzaka, whose favorite motto is REVENGE, did not want a repeat of 2009, a lost season by his standards. Ours, too. He tried too much too early to be ready for the World Baseball Championship and now wants to be in tip top shape for 2010. Boston will be patient...after all, it's only February 18th. Here, let Theo Epstein explain it...

“I know he’s worked really hard this winter to make up for last year and come out and have a big season,” general manager Theo Epstein said. “That’s what we’re all hoping for him. We want to slow this thing down so we don’t turn something small into something big. Last year, he never really was able to get into condition to pitch in part because of the way things went early in spring. We want to make sure we avoid a repeat of that. We’re two months away from when we’ll need his rotation spot anyway, so we’ll just slow it down, let our doctors look at him, not make something we think is really small into something big. He was open with us, full disclosure,” Epstein said.

Communication is a good thing, something that was lacking between Daisuke and the club at times last year when he hid an injury (or two) from trainers and his manager. If Matsuzaka can revert to a 15 win season, that would be quite a shot in the arm for a rotation that is so deep and talented. That's why the Red Sox will proceed with caution. Daisuke will have plenty of time for spring training...I just know it. What's a couple weeks off to settle his back muscles? In the long run, NOTHING.

Wednesday night up in Vancouver, Canada was a memorable one for the United States of America. Three gold medals were won and if you click on the title of this post, you'll be able to watch all the highlights and read about them, too. Sports Illustrated dot com has it all. Enjoy and have a great Thursday. As always, BE WELL. See ya.