Daisuke Matsuzaka will not pitch as scheduled on Tuesday after getting a cortisone injection. (AP)

Right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka had a cortisone shot in his right trapezius muscle in his upper back, manager Bobby Valentine told reporters, and he will not make his scheduled start on May 22. That almost certainly means that he will be shut down for at least seven days, thus permitting the Red Sox to start a fresh 30-day rehab clock for him on a minor league rehab assignment. Matsuzaka’s initial rehab assignment was slated to end on Wednesday.

Matsuzaka appeared, for much of the spring, to be well ahead of schedule in his rehab from Tommy John surgery. He suffered no setbacks after undergoing the procedure in June 2011, to the point where the Sox thought he might be back in the majors in less than a year.

That is no longer the case. Hist stuff was inconsistent en route to a 4.62 ERA over five minor league rehab starts. Though he struck out 22 and walked six in 25 1/3 innings, he also got shelled for six homers.

The fact that Matsuzaka is not available to the Sox in the near term underscores the tenuous depth of the team’s rotation. Matsuzaka is injured. So is Aaron Cook, though the sinkerballer seems likely to commence a minor league rehab assignment soon. Beyond those two, the team’s rotation options (should either injury or poor performance necessitate another starter) include pitchers such as Ross Ohlendorf and Justin Germano, pitchers with big league experience but who have been showing less-than-dominating stuff against Triple-A hitters.

That reality looms over conversations about whether to move Daniel Bard or Clay Buchholz out of the rotation if either struggles. For now, especially until Cook can return, the Sox face a question of what alternatives they have.

TRIPLE-A PAWTUCKET RED SOX: 6-3 LOSS AT NORFOLK (ORIOLES)

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– At the time that the Sox moved Alex Wilson into the bullpen, their major league bullpen was in a state of some crisis. Since then, however, the group has stabilized en route to the lowest bullpen ERA of any team in the majors in May. That being the case, the Sox have been able to proceed at a gradual pace with the right-hander, in deference to the absence of a pressing team need at the moment, the team’s depth (Mark Melancon, Clayton Mortensen and Junichi Tazawa have all been dominant this year, and all are on the 40-man roster) and the fact that Wilson himself has yet to perform at a level to force his way onto the big league roster. Read the rest of this entry »

Right-hander Matt Barnes has the lowest ERA in the minors after six shutout innings on Thursday (Darrell Snow / Greenville Drive)

Matt Barnes, the minor league leader in strikeouts, had his fewest punchouts of the season, tallying “just” five over six innings in his eighth start of the year (and his third since being promoted to High-A Salem) while relying primarily on his fastball. Yet he enjoyed his best statistical line.

The right-hander permitted just three baserunners — two on singles, one on a walk — in delivering six shutout innings, needing just 74 pitches (47 strikes) to get through the outing. It was the first time he had not given up a run in a High-A start (though in fairness, he gave up just one earned run in each of his first two starts at the level). Three starts into his time at Salem, Barnes now has a 1.00 ERA while averaging 12.5 strikeouts and one walk per nine innings. Opponents are hitting .175 against him.

Barnes, of course, will need a more complete mix in order to continue his dominance. But on Thursday, he kept his swing-and-miss curve and changeup in his pocket for most of the game, since his fastball command and life were good enough to mow through the Carolina lineup.

It wasn’t preplanned, but that emphasis on his fastball has developmental value, since the Sox have wanted Barnes to work on further honing his fastball command — something that can be difficult to do when throwing 94-98 mph in the lower levels of the minors, with the sort of velocity on which young hitters rarely can punish missed locations.

This is the challenge of Barnes’ development to date. His stuff is simply better than the level of competition at which he’s been playing. Even on a day when he leans primarily on one pitch, he can dominate.

At 21, he has been overpowering. His 0.60 ERA is the best in the minors. He continues to lead the minors with 67 punchouts. His 0.65 WHIP is the best in the minors, and opponents’ .148 batting average against him is the fifth lowest in the minors. It is the sort of performance that forces prospects onto a fast track, simply in order to ensure that they are challenged enough to continue their development.

TRIPLE-A PAWTUCKET RED SOX: 5-0 LOSS AT DURHAM (RAYS)

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– Daisuke Matsuzaka recorded the longest outing of his minor league rehab assignment, delivering 6 2/3 innings in Durham for Triple-A Pawtucket, but the right-hander was once again touched for a pair of homers while allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits. He struck out three and walked none while throwing 64 of 95 pitches (67 percent) for strikes, and he was charged with the loss in Pawtucket’s 5-0 defeat. Read the rest of this entry »

Daisuke Matsuzaka has at least two more rehab starts ahead of him. (AP)

Daisuke Matsuzaka is on the clock. Sort of.

Even though the pitcher is currently on a 30-day minor league rehab assignment, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he will have to be called up to the big leagues when it expires on May 23. Matsuzaka has appeared in four games thus far, and his performance has been mixed.

At times, he’s looked like he’s close to being able to contribute in the majors. At others — most notably, in his most recent outing for Triple-A Pawtucket, when he allowed five runs on seven hits and two homers in 5 1/3 innings — he hasn’t. In four starts (one in High-A Salem, one in Double-A Portland, two with the PawSox), he is 0-1 with a 4.34 ERA, 19 strikeouts, six walks and four homers allowed in 18 2/3 innings.

The 31-year-old is slated to make two more rehab starts, one on Thursday and another on May 22. Technically, that will be the last time he can make a start under the 30-day window of his current assignment. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the pitcher will be done pitching in the minors at that point.

With Matsuzaka returning from Tommy John surgery, if there is some kind of physical setback — whether inadequate arm strength or some physical malady with either his elbow or something else — then if the Sox shut down the right-hander for at least seven days, they can restart his rehab clock, thus permitting them to commence a new 30-day rehab assignment. While Major League Baseball has to approve the renewal of the rehab clock, it is typically either rubber-stamped or — so long as the issue is legitimate — approved after a brief phone call to clarify the need for the renewal of the rehab clock.

That being the case, if Matsuzaka does not look like a pitcher who is ready to help in the big leagues after two more starts, the Red Sox likely will be able to take more time to evaluate him in the minors while deciding when — or whether — to call him up to reinforce the starting rotation.

Center fielder Jackie Bradley was selected by the Red Sox with the No. 40 pick of the 2011 draft. (John Corneau / Lowell Spinners)

It had been a while since the Red Sox had taken a top college position player from a major program when they selected Jackie Bradley Jr. out of the University of South Carolina in the supplemental first round last summer. While Kolbrin Vitek had been selected out of Ball State with the team’s first-round pick in 2010, the level of competition he faced in college wasn’t necessarily the type to allow him to hit the ground sprinting, and so he spent all of last year in Salem.

The last time the team had taken a college position player with something approximating the competitive pedigree and resume of Bradley — the 2010 College World Series MVP and two-time College World Series champion at Omaha — was when the Sox selected Jacoby Ellsbury in the first round of the 2005 draft. Ellsbury made his pro debut in Lowell and then, assigned to High-A Wilmington (then the Sox’ Carolina League affiliate), Ellsbury got off to a strong start, hitting .304 with a .368 OBP, .449 slugging mark and .818 OPS through late-April, before an injury sidelined him for about four weeks. He came back and played roughly a month and a half in Wilmington before a mid-July promotion to Double-A Portland, at a time when he was hitting .299/.379/.418/.797 with four homers and 25 steals in 61 games.

Ellsbury took little time to show that he was ready to move. But he never dominated in the same sustained fashion as Bradley.

Bradley added another page to what has become an incredibly impressive chapter in his pro debut at Salem. On Saturday, he went 5-for-5 with a double, and 31 games into his season, he is hitting .389 with a .507 OBP, .575 slugging mark and 1.082 OPS along with 11 steals. Though he’s made four errors in center, his defense has been described by farm director Ben Crockett as “incredible.”

From a performance standpoint, he’s done just about everything imaginable at this level. So what does the team want to see from him before sending Bradley to Portland?

“Jackie’s performed very well. It’s still a small sample,” said Crockett. “We’re very happy with what we’ve seen so far, though, and want to continue to see consistency in the way he plays, get him used to the rigors of playing everyday and playing more often than he has in the past.”

Bradley has played 31 games in Salem, about half the number that Ellsbury had before his promotion. But he hasn’t missed time due to injury while playing everyday, and at some point, if Bradley keeps dominating his competition, he’ll force his way up to the next level. The last Red Sox college position player to start his first full pro season with this kind of performance was Dustin Pedroia, whom the Sox pushed all the way up to Double-A at the start of 2005, with the second baseman responding by hitting .347/.434/.521/.954 in his first 31 games en route to a promotion to Triple-A by late-June.

TRIPLE-A PAWTUCKET RED SOX: 7-6 WIN VS. COLUMBUS (INDIANS)

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– There was progress for Daisuke Matsuzaka, who managed to pitch into the sixth inning for the first time in his rehab assignment and who showed more power on his fastball (topping out at 93 mph on his fastball on the McCoy Stadium gun, according to reports), showed improved command with the pitch and who knocked down his walks total to one. Still, after allowing five runs on seven hits, including a pair of homers, Matsuzaka seemed skeptical of the idea that he’s major league ready. Read the rest of this entry »

Right-hander Matt Barnes is averaging 14.4 strikeouts per nine innings this year (Darrell Snow / Greenville Drive)

At this point, they are becoming events as much as they are starts. When Matt Barnes takes the mound, the eyes of the organization are on him.

Thus far, he has yet to disappoint. The right-hander made his seventh pro start (and second in High-A Salem) on Friday night, and he just kept overpowering hitters. Though he did permit two runs (one earned) — the largest runs total he’s permitted this year — and he was taken deep for the first time as a professional, the 2011 first-rounder (No. 19 overall) struck out eight and walked none in his six innings of work, while filling up the strike zone with an outrageous 75 percent of his pitches (59 of 79).

Barnes leads all of pro baseball — majors and minors — with 62 strikeouts. He’s walked only five. He’s shown a plus fastball (topping out at 98 mph, still reaching 96-97 mph in the later innings of his outings, capable of getting numerous swings and misses) and a plus curveball with a changeup that has a chance to grade as an above-average third offering. In his two starts since being promoted to Salem, he has a 1.50 ERA with 20 strikeouts in 12 innings. Overall this year, between his seven starts in Greenville and Salem, he is 3-0 with a 0.70 ERA, a ton of groundballs and strikeouts and a .153 batting average against.

Chaz Scoggins of the Lowell Sun recently noted the parallels between the professional debuts of Barnes and Roger Clemens. In the intervening almost three decades, it would be difficult to identify another Red Sox prospect who has been so dominant out of the gate in his pro career. That is not to say that Barnes should start clearing spots on his mantle for Cy Young awards, but for an organization that has had several lessons in the limitations of free agency and the trade market in order to acquire quality starting pitching, the fact that Barnes has hit the ground running represents one of the most promising signs that the farm system can offer.

TRIPLE-A PAWTUCKET RED SOX: 5-1 WIN VS. COLUMBUS (INDIANS)

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– Jose Iglesias went 2-for-4 with a bloop single and a bunt as his season continues its reversal since a slow April. He now has multiple hits in seven of his last nine games, hitting .429 in that stretch to improve his numbers to .259 with a .326 OBP, .293 slugging mark and .619 OPS. He also swiped a base, and is now 5-for-6 in stolen base attempts this year. Read the rest of this entry »

Daisuke Matsuzaka was subdued after 4 2/3 shutout innings in his latest rehab outing on Monday. (AP)

The reality is that Tommy John surgery, more often than not, does not feature a straight line rehab process.

Rich Hill represented the exception, experiencing no setbacks in the roughly 11 months since his surgery to the point where he’s already asserted himself as an important contributor in the Red Sox’ major league bullpen. But the path back is typically different — and more deliberate — particularly for starting pitchers.

And so, it should not come as a complete surprise that Daisuke Matsuzaka has not yet looked like a dominant pitcher in his rehab appearances. There have been interesting signs, such as the fact that he touched as high as 94 mph while pitching in extended spring training, and the fact that he punched out seven in a Double-A rehab start a little more than a week ago. But he remains a work in progress, and not a finished product.

On Monday in Pawtucket, he offered a reminder of that fact. He tossed 4 2/3 shutout innings, but it took the right-hander 87 pitches to get to that stage of the game. he was unable to finish the fifth inning, something that represented a bit of a disappointment.

“I had about four walks and a lot of two-ball, three-ball counts which knocked up my pitch count,” Matsuzaka told reporters (via a translator) in Pawtucket. “I really wanted to throw at least five innings, but it didn’t happen, so I’m not really happy about that.”

While Matsuzaka reported no problems in the neck issue that delayed his latest outing by a few days, he acknowledged that his rebuilt elbow varies on a day-to-day basis. That being the case, he did not exude certainty about whether he might be ready to return to the majors with another couple of starts.

“Overall, my body feels good, so that’s fine, but my elbow, depending on the day — some days it feels better than others. Right now, I’m hoping when I start, it hits the day I’m feeling good,” he told reporters. “Regarding being ready in two more games, it’s hard to say because it’s a step-by-step process, a game-by-game process. I’ll just go see how I pitch my next outing and see how that goes and see where I stand then.”

In many respects, in examining the histories of other Red Sox pitchers who underwent Tommy John, it is remarkable that Matsuzaka — less than a year removed from the repair of his ulnar collateral ligament last June — is in Triple-A. Junichi Tazawa had the procedure performed in April 2010 and did not start a rehab assignment for 13 months. Former Sox pitcher Nick Hagadone (who recorded his first career big league save on Monday) went under the knife in May 2008 and didn’t start pitching in minor league games until June 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

Aaron Cook has a 1.89 ERA in five Triple-A starts. (AP)

With a May 1 deadline looming on a major league option, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said Monday that if the Red Sox decide to promote righthander Aaron Cook, he will begin in the team’s bullpen. Valentine said he met with general manager Ben Cherington earlier in the day Monday to discuss a possible landing spot for him on the big league 25-man roster.

“Ben was in this afternoon,” Valentine said. “We talked again on that. I’m sure he has all his ducks in order and again, I don’t know exactly when, why, how, these deadlines and all that. Everyone’s opinion has been shared.”

If the Red Sox select him, Cook will receive $1.5 million. If they don’t he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Valentine made it clear that if the team promotes him by Tuesday, he will come out of the bullpen, despite going 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA in five starts for Pawtucket this April.

“I haven’t talked to him so I can’t speak for him,” Valentine said. “When he throws his sinker, it’s a real good pitch. A lot of hitters hit the top of it. He didn’t pitch that well [in spring training], but when he was throwing well and had that sinker, I really liked it. It’s a little different pitch than many people feature. Competitiveness, he works quickly, he fields his position, has game presence, all that good stuff. I like that, too.”

Asked about how he would manage Cook and use him out of the pen after making a series of starts for Triple-A Pawtucket to start the season, Valentine admitted he’d have his hands full.

“I think it’d be challenging,” Valentine said. “Right now, I couldn’t say it would be anything other than [relief pitching].”

Daisuke Matsuzaka is scheduled to make his next rehab start this Friday for Triple-A Pawtucket. It will be his third of the spring after starts for Class A Salem and Double-A Portland.

“Depending on the weather, we’re trying to make a plan so in case there’s bad weather, he doesn’t get off schedule,” Valentine said Monday.

Last Saturday, Matsuzaka faced 17 hitters over 4 2/3 innings, Matsuzaka allowed one run on three hits and two walks, while striking out seven (all swinging), in a game the SeaDogs won, 9-1, at Hadlock Field in Portland. Read the rest of this entry »