Fansided

MLB: 8 of baseball’s most infamous one-year wonders

By Ryan Morik

DETROIT - SEPTEMBER 3: Joel Zumaya #54 of the Detroit Tigers pitches against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on September 3, 2006 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan. Los Angeles won the game 2-1. (Photo By Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
DETROIT - SEPTEMBER 3: Joel Zumaya #54 of the Detroit Tigers pitches against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on September 3, 2006 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan. Los Angeles won the game 2-1. (Photo By Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
8 of 8
Next
CHICAGO – AUGUST 9: Daisuke Matsuzaka #18 of the Boston Red Sox pitches during the game against the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Illinois on August 9, 2008. The Red Sox defeated the White Sox 6-2. (Photo by Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
CHICAGO – AUGUST 9: Daisuke Matsuzaka #18 of the Boston Red Sox pitches during the game against the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, Illinois on August 9, 2008. The Red Sox defeated the White Sox 6-2. (Photo by Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /

Daisuke Matsuzaka

18-3, 2.90 ERA, 4th place in AL Cy Young Award voting in 2008

Daisuke Matsuzaka was the fourth-place finisher for the 2007 American League Rookie of the Year, and played a vital role in the Red Sox’s World Series title that year.

But Dice-K’s best season, came the following year. He allowed a season low 6.9 hits per nine innings, and he fell behind Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, and Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez in that season’s Cy Young Award voting. He also won the Gold Medal and Most Valuable Player Award at both the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics as Team Japan’s ace, but Dice-K was supposed to be Boston’s ace for years.

But he wasn’t.

He struggled to stay healthy throughout the rest of his career, and his lowest single-season ERA from 2009 to the end of his MLB career in 2014 was 3.89, where he made only nine starts in his final season. He made 25 appearances out of the bullpen that year for the Mets.

From 2009-2014, Dice-K’s ERA climbed to 5.10, and he had a poor 1.71 K/BB.

Matsuzaka has been playing professionally in Japan since 2015, and actually won the Nippon Professional Baseball Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2018. But in the States, he’s known as a bust.

dark. Next. Ranking all 30 MLB uniforms

Home/MLB