Daisuke Matsusaka

"I've been a long time fan of the Lions in the early 90s but haven't really got a chance to see them recently. So I'm curious to who this new ace of the Lions Matsusaka is. What's his pitching style like? How does he compare to his senpai fireballer #18 Taigen Kaku?

Thx. "Have you been living under a rock these past few years?  That's what the radio announcers on KNBR thought of me when I visited the States for a seminar a couple of months ago, since I'd never heard of "Survivor Island" (or something like that) or the "XFL."  But then, news doesn't travel outside of Japan that much, does it?

I'm afraid that I caught Kaku at the end of his career, so perhaps somebody else can answer this better than I.

But as for what's Matsuzaka like?  Well, he often throws a minimum 120 pitches per game, and throws mostly heat - low to mid 150's (kph).  In his 18 year old rookie debut against the Nippon Ham Fighters a couple of years ago, he hit 155 on a high-inside fastball to big slugging Franklin (was it?).  That could have almost been construed as "assult with a deadly weapon."

Yokohama and Seibu drew for his rights in the 1999 draft, after Matsuzaka had led Yokohama High to three straight victories at Koshien.  He did it in the summer of 1998 by pitching a 250 pitch full game to defeat the often favored PL Gakuen, then won the next day in relief as Yokohama came back from a 6 run deficit in the last two innings, and started the final game the day after.  He was the hostest pitcher in Japan - perhaps even hotter than the BayStars' Daimajin (Sasaki) who had broken all kinds of save records that same year on top of leading the 'Stars to the Japan championship.

With the overwork that Higashio-kantoku continues to give the youngster, pretty much everybody agrees that his career will be a short one.  But it's already been longer and brighter than many had predicted.