Daisuke Matsuzaka was not worth $103 million.

There’s a lot of financial craziness out there in modern professional sport, but we have not yet reached the point where a third or fourth (and in this case, fifth) starter is worth a total investment of $103 million for six years.

There’s really not going to be any kind of debate about this, is there?

The issue before us as Dice-K begins his open-ended stay in the Japanese Pitcher Witness Protection Program, otherwise known as the disabled list, is whether the bigger story is his almost complete collapse or that his absence is actually a blessing as the Red Sox attempt to seize control of both the division and the entire American League.

We can’t expect to get the straight skinny from the Red Sox. They will insist the DL thing is legit, that their honest belief is that Dice-K’s troubles are strictly medical. We may hear more about the evils of the World Baseball Classic. They have too much at stake to say otherwise.

But it’s pretty obvious something else is going on. Dice-K has made a couple of veiled allusions to an issue outside of baseball. If that’s the case, he should be given as much time as he needs to address the situation. It’s not as if he’ll be missed.

No one is going to miss a starter with an ERA of 8.23 and a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 2.20. No one is going to miss someone against whom opponents are batting .378 with an OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) of 1.091. No one is going to miss someone who routinely gives up four- or five-run leads.

The fact is the Red Sox are uniquely prepared to replace Mr. Matsuzaka. We’ll see the first option Thursday night when John Smoltz makes his Red Sox debut in Washington. A second option is already in place. His name is Justin Masterson. Option three is down there in Pawtucket, where an increasingly restless Clay Buchholz has proved to be too good for Triple A.

Of course, no one in power will say the team is already better off knowing that Dice-K will not be pitching for the foreseeable future. But we all know that happens to be the case.

The goal now is to restore him to, well, what, exactly?

He’s not what he was supposed to be; this much we know. He was billed as a superpitcher, a guy who threw in the mid-to-high 90s and who augmented this uberheater with as many as five auxiliary pitches, all, as they say, in the “plus’’ category. (We won’t go anywhere near that gyroball nonsense.)

We’ve never seen that guy.

What we’ve seen at his best is a guy who throws in the low 90s and who has decent auxiliary stuff. We have seen that, in common with pitchers in his basic category, he needs to hit spots to be effective. He has got to locate that fastball on the corners. If he can do that, everything else has a chance to work.

In other words, he’s like a hundred other guys.

We’ve also found him to be someone who wants to be too fine. If there is a Japanese equivalent of the phrase “trust your stuff,’’ he doesn’t subscribe to the theory. Whatever “nibbler’’ is in Japanese, that’s him. Or, at least, that was him in 2008, when he led the league in lowest opponents’ batting average (.211) and led the league in walks (94), which was hard to do, considering that 38 American League pitchers threw more innings than Dice-K’s 167 2/3.

This year he’s walking substantially fewer, but now everyone’s hitting him. He needs to get this thing calibrated.

Someone might look at what he did last year and wonder why anyone could complain. After all, he was 18-3. Well, there’s 18-3 and there’s 18-3, and to construct his 18-3 he pitched well, but not that well. He enjoyed hefty run support (5.7 runs per game) and he was amazingly – or should I say cleverly – coddled by Terry Francona and pitching coach John Farrell. In one-third of his wins he pitched five innings.

Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci pointed out earlier this year there is an eerie pattern of Japanese pitchers losing it during their third year in America. At the time, the Sox rejected this as a reason for Dice-K’s problems, saying he was physically sound and citing the fact he was 26 when they signed him. With the exception of Hideo Nomo, the Japanese pitchers who broke down did so in their early 30s. They insisted Dice-K was physically sound. But now he’s going on the DL, citing shoulder woes? Something doesn’t add up.

No one can say his first two years represented failure. He struck out 201 in 2007, and he pitched three or four outstanding games. But at no point did he resemble an ace. Josh Beckett in 2007, that’s an ace. Josh Beckett now. That’s an ace. Jon Lester in 2008, that’s an ace. Daisuke Matsuzaka at his best has been a solid No. 3, with occasional flashes of being a No. 2.

Understand that over half the $103 million John Henry paid to obtain Dice-K’s services was a posting fee to his old club. So the just under $9 million he gets in actual salary might be something approximating market value for a pitcher of Dice-K’s caliber.

But that’s not the way he was billed.

He was supposed to be one of the elite pitchers in the world. He’s not. When he’s right, he’s an OK pitcher. When he’s not right, and right now he’s far from right, he’s a massive liability.

No longer. He has been made redundant, and the 2009 Boston Red Sox aren’t going to miss him.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist and host of Globe 10.0 on Boston.com. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.

Here are some great article links to our beloved Jim Ed Rice’s induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame

Nudging Rice over the borderline

By Bob Ryan Globe Columnist / January 11, 2009

Full disclosure: I have not always voted for Jim Rice.

He first appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1995, and I did not put an X in his box until 2000. I mention this to underscore the enormously agonizing thought process any voter goes through when evaluating a borderline Hall of Fame candidate, of which Jim Rice is almost a classic Exhibit A.

Oh, sure, it’s easy when examining the case for a Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Nolan Ryan, Ozzie Smith, Wade Boggs, Cal Ripken, or Tony Gwynn, all of whom attained first-ballot enshrinement in the past 14 elections. It is similarly easy to vote yes on Rickey Henderson this year.

CLICK HERE to read the Rest of Bob Ryan’s article on Boston.com

Click HERE

Red Sox were victorious in the opening game of the 2008 Season….

6 – 5 in Extra Innings !

Oki Wins – Pap saves – Nice!

Being a proud member of the RSN early risers club it was more than gut wrenching to watch Dice K fumble through the first inning – I woke up for this! We all thought it “ come on what a bum – your even in your hometown!”.

No worries for the FWF’s ( inset FenWay Faithfuls or Fair Weather Fans) of the world because we all got to cling warmly to the RSN hero of the moment…Brandon Moss – huh Brandon Moss?

Well last years favorite guy to “blame it all on” suddenly came down with a back ache…what a great break – probably one of the top ten things JD has done since his arrival to the Red Sox!

Bran-don Moss! ! ! Bran-don Moss! ! Bran-don Moss! ! WooHoo.

He tied the game for the Sox with the long ball – his first major League Dinger and it was made in Japan!

The Good–

Manny’s hammering the ball early!

Brandy Moss – HaHa nice one by me – can he do this at Fenway?

Houston Street is still as sucky as last year !

A’s base runners showed signs of AA ball.

Coco got to play an inning.

Dale Arnold is a great announcer havign him teamed with Mr Castiglione is pure genius!

The Bad–

The game was as long as most Sox Yanks drills

Jack Hanahan may be the latest Red Sox killer villain from the left coast.

Keith  (who is former Sox reliever currently A’s set up man..); may be a sharp pain in our side in these match ups – what a jerk.

Varetek Whiff, Whiff, Whiff…..not good

The Ugly-

Dice K’s lack of control – hopefully it was his nerve factory working overtime being the 50 million dollar man returning home to show his worth? Yeah that must have been it – or is it really still friggin March? This season is WAY too long!

Greg Dickerson has no place beign on the air with Michael Holley – ever- yawn!

See you tomorrow………………

No Beeps or Bombs here your free to say what you want for as long as you want….

This forum and blog is the result of many things ; mostly because baseball is the most fun sport to follow – I didn’t say watch – it can be looong and boring as all hell.

Of course the season is too long but that’s what makes it enjoyable – how nice is it to fetch the paper the morning following a victory – if you share this feeling then you know the struggles of fetching and reading the paper when they lose…you my friend are also a sick individual and a proud member of the pre-marketed group now commonly referred to as Red Sox Nation ( RSN from this day forward…)

Welcome all ( yes the Pink Hats too) and don’t be shy it’s a long way to the next October Sweep!

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