Last season, Daisuke Matsuzaka was one of the best pitchers in baseball. In the offseason, he won the MVP as he led Japan to the World Baseball Classic championship. But now the native of Japan is in the middle of having a horrible season.
As they try to figure out what is wrong with him, the Boston Red Sox have told Matsuzaka that he will skip his next start. In Matsuzaka’s place, the Red Sox will go with John Smoltz, who will be making his season debut.
Last season, Matsuzaka was 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA. He appeared to be well worth …read more

David Ortiz has been given a few days off to clear his mind and rediscover his groove at the plate. His in-season vacation will be over on Tuesday when the Boston Red Sox take on the Toronto Blue Jays.
In the three games without Ortiz, the Red Sox went 1-2 against the Seattle Mariners. Their lone win was a 5-3 victory on Saturday when Josh Beckett picked up his fourth win and Jonathan Papelbon picked up his tenth save.
Boston only managed 11 runs in those three games so taking Ortiz out of the lineup didn’t exactly open up the floodgates. When …read more

David Ortiz has long been a staple in the middle of the Boston Red Sox lineup. On Friday, manager Terry Francona decided to give Ortiz a day off. The manager hinted that Ortiz will be held out a few days in hopes of getting the slugger out of his slump.
The 33-year-old native of the Dominican Republic is hitting .208 with no homers and 15 RBI in 34 games this season. Perhaps his worst game came on Thursday when he was 0-for-7 at the plate.
Ortiz doesn’t have a homer in 144 at-bats — the longest stretch of his career without a …read more

Carlos Quentin is hoping to be selected to the 2008 All-Star game either as a write-in vote or a reserve after a local newspaper launched the ‘Q-Tips for Quentin’ campaign.Photo: Newscom

How many of you have Chicago White Sox outfielder Carlos Quentin on your fantasy baseball team? Now, how many of you picked him in the draft and not out of the free agency pool? Not that many, I’m sure. Quentin is having a solid season, batting .295 with 15 home runs and 50 runs batted in. Yet, the tragedy is that Quentin’s name is no where …read more