Daisuke Matsuzaka showed up early to Fort Myers and all reports are good so far on the Red Sox's back-end of the rotation starter:
Daisuke Matsuzaka arrived in Fort Myers two days ago and looks terrific according to people here who have seen him.
We're hoping to get a look at Matsuzaka today. He arrived at the Player Development Complex today in an SUV that zipped around the back. There's a chance he might throw off a mound later this morning.
[...]UPDATE, 11:33 p.m.: No Dice-K throwing session today, it seems. But Theo Epstein stopped to chat on his way out and said that Matsuzaka looked good and has lost weight. "He worked hard this winter, that's evident," the GM said.
Dice-K's performance this year is going to be huge. If the Red Sox can get a performance out of him similar to his rookie campaign (204.2 IP, 1.32 WHIP, 8.8 K/9), the Red Sox are going to be one dangerous team. Dice-K really is the Wild Card: we pretty much know what to expect from Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and John Lackey. Clay Buchholz is more of a sure thing, in my opinion, than Dice-K.
Imagine if the Red Sox can get a mid-3 ERA out of Dice-K and have him limit his walks a tad. That spells good things for the Sox in 2010.