Dice-K the next Tiant?

Reports out of Florida regarding the latest outing from Daisuke Matsuzaka are bringing back memories of another celebrated Red Sox twirler, Luis Tiant. Matsuzaka, or Dice-K as he's being referred to, featured a baffling array of pitches that the Pittsburgh Pirates had difficulty identifying, much less hitting, in his most recent spring outing. Dice-K's repertoire is reminiscent of my all-time favorite Red Sox player, Luis Tiant. I'm excited for the season to start.

El Tiante

El Daisuke

Schilling's new blog

Curt Schilling has joined the blogosphere. He promises to talk baseball and gaming, and whatever else comes to mind. Never one to shy away from offering his opinion, here's a way to get it directly from the horse's mouth.

I plan to chat about a myriad of topics as this blog evolves, from baseball,
teams, players, and umpires, to the media, my family, and my past in and around
the game, all the way to the electronic gaming industry and what I’ve seen, am
seeing, and hope to see from 38 Studios in the future.

The Day 2 post is something that will hopefully be more indicative of the content - breaking down the '07 Sox, and breaking down his own pitching performance. Good stuff.

Thanks to Wisdom Weasel for the link.

MLB.com has some notes on the minor leaguers currently in Boston's spring training camp. The focus of the article is on former Sea Dog Brandon Moss, who is working on hitting to the opposite field, perhaps in hopes of taking advantage of the Green Monster.

"When you have Fenway in mind, you have a lot of forgiveness in
left field," said Moss. "I'm just trying to stay consistent with going the other
way. At the same time, you don't want to be too focused on that, because then
you lose the other side of the plate."

The new swing paid off with an opposite-field homer against the Phillies.

After spending the last two seasons in Portland, and winning the playoff MVP last September, Moss is slated for AAA Pawtucket this season. Now 23, Moss may be poised to regain some of the prospect status that he seems to have lost since he arrived at the AA level in 2005. He posted a .955 OPS in the Dominican Winter League, albeit in only 14 games, and is off to a good start this spring.

The article also has notes on George Kottaras, Chad Spann, Craig Hansen, Jacoby Ellsbury and David Murphy, all of whom spent time in Portland last season, and all of whom will likely call Pawtucket home in April.