Fake Teams Fantasy Player of the Day: Red Sox Starter Daisuke Matsuzaka

In his 8 seasons pitching in Japan, Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka won 108 games and lost 62, and had a strikeout rate that was right around 9.00. In his first year with the Red Sox, he went 15-12 with a 4.40 ERA, and followed that up with a spectacular 2008 season where he went 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA.

His last two seasons have been marred by injury and an inability to pitch deep into games. In 2009, he made only 12 starts, throwing 59+ innings where he went 4-6 with a 5.76 ERA. Last year, he made 25 starts going 9-6 with a 4.96 ERA. One of Dice-K's biggest problems since joining the Red Sox was the walk. His walk rate has gone from 3.52 in 2007 to 4.33 last year.

There was talk, recently, that the Red Sox should consider taking Dice-K out of the starting rotation after he gave up 7 runs in a 2 inning start on April 11th vs the Rays. Since that start, Dice-K has given up zero runs, on just 2 hits, 4 walks and 12 strikeouts in 15 innings pitched. This after he shutout the Angels last night for 8 innings, giving up just one hit, 3 walks and striking out 9. He threw first pitch strikes to 17 of the 28 hitters he faced and got 13 swinging strikes.

The question for fantasy owners is should you pick him up should he be available on the waiver wire, and I have a feeling he is. I would say you pick him up to see if he can continue this hot streak, as long as you can stomach a bad start. He gets the Mariners at home next week, so you might want to add him for that start.