Daisuke Matsuzaka arrived at the Boston Red Sox spring training complex in Fort Myers, Fla., on Sunday (Feb 18) with the fanfare of a rock star as he was greeted by hundreds of screaming fans and over 200 members of the media.
Matsuzaka , whom signed a six-year $52 million contract in November, went through a light workout throwing 45 pitches. The right hander from Japan is scheduled to pitch in the teams first spring training outing versus Boston College on March 2.
Matsuzaka smiled as he carried Red Sox veteran catcher Jason Varitek's bag of catching equipment onto the field. Of his 45 pitches, 25 were from the windup and 20 from the stretch, during his 13-minute session.
"It's way too early for any assessments or anything," Varitek said. "You don't know where he's at physically. He could be ready to throw a 200 or 300 pitch bullpen right now, but they have the governor on him a little bit to make sure he gets through in the same time everybody else is. It was about as much basic of a bullpen as we possibly could have done."
Staff ace Kurt Schilling and Matsuzaka were among 14 pitchers who threw from bullpen mounds on a cool, windy opening day of Boston's spring training. The other three starters, Josh Beckett, Jonathan Papelbon and Tim Wakefield and Japanese left-hander Hideki Okajima joined them.
"I felt tense when I put on the uniform," Matsuzaka said through an interpreter after a 90-minute session on the first day of spring training on Sunday. Matsuzaka first played catch with fellow Japanese pitcher Hideki Okajima, who is also new to the Red Sox after joining from the Nippon-Ham Fighters, the 2006 Japan Series champions.
The Red Sox announced that Matsuzaka is scheduled to throw his first batting practice session on Saturday giving him a full week before he enters a game.
