Just no catching this pitcher

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Daisuke Matsuzaka, Texas Ranger?

That's not as far-fetched as it sounds.

"We liked him a lot," said the Rangers' senior director of baseball operations, Don Welke, who saw Matsuzaka pitch multiple times the last few years, including 2005, when he was Texas's international cross-checker, and last season, which he spent in Philadelphia as a special assistant to Pat Gillick.

The Rangers bid in the neighborhood of $27 million-$28 million for Matsuzaka. Welke admits to shock when he heard the Red Sox won the rights to him with a figure ($51.1 million) almost double what the Rangers submitted.

The Rangers devote far more resources to their scouting operations in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, Welke said, than they do on the Pacific Rim. A veteran of 42 years in the game, almost all of it as a scout, Welke said he doesn't see major league clubs flooding Asia with scouts just because of the success of Matsuzaka and other top-flight stars such as Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui.

"Teams are pretty much aware of who is where," Welke said. "When Ichiro was out there, we knew he was there, so you just go and evaluate them. He was special, and Daisuke is special. When special guys come along, we're aware of it, but to say MLB is going to be more intense in Japan because of these special guys, I don't think so, unless some special guys come forth again."

Welke does believe there is growing interest in second-tier players in Japan because they're still cost-effective and "they have something to prove -- they want to show they can play here."

His take on Matsuzaka: "He has a great mix of pitches, a great presence on the mound, a personality about him, a good fastball, and a few other pitches. He's remained constant. He's amazing in that regard. He's thrown a lot of innings, but he's been able to withstand everything. He's just as good now as he's ever been."

When the Sox were in Kansas City to open the season, Royals manager Buddy Bell said that star players in Japan now come here with instant credibility.

"I think a lot of that has to do with Ichiro," Bell said. "Those guys who were able to produce over there, Matsui, we give them instant credibility. We don't take any of these guys lightly."

Bell, who had Terry Francona as his third base coach when he managed Detroit in 1996, went along with the joke when asked if the hardest part of Matsuzaka's transition to the United States was learning English from Francona.

"His English will never get any better than it is now," Bell said. "That's the only downside to this."

Then, in a more serious vein, Bell said: "Coming to play in Boston is something special, and being able to play for Francona makes it quite a bit easier."

Matsuzaka has a younger brother, Kyohei, who is an infielder for the Ehime Mandarin Pirates of the Shikoku Island League, an independent league in Japan. According to the Daily Yomiuri On-Line, the younger Matsuzaka, 24, watched his brother's debut in his apartment in Matsuyama.

"I could tell from the look on my brother's face that he was really concentrating," the newspaper quoted Kyohei as saying. "I think he found his groove after he got out of a pinch with a double play in the first inning."

"Growing up, we spent a lot of time together and shared a lot of experiences," Daisuke Matsuzaka said yesterday through translator Sachiyo Sekiguchi. "I think we were a regular pair of brothers that got along fairly well. And, of course, we've had our run-ins every now and then. But for the most part, we got along fairly well growing up."

Being Daisuke's little brother could not have been easy.

"I think it was at my wedding, the first time that he admitted to me that he grew up with a little bit of pressure from being my younger brother," Daisuke said.

The two talk on a fairly regular basis, he said. "A lot of times it is my brother calling me," said Daisuke, who said they stay in touch by cellphone and e-mail.

A photograph of Matsuzaka's wife, Tomoyo, holding the game ball that Jason Varitek presented Daisuke, appeared in several Japanese publications.

J.D. Drew, who has hit safely in his first five games, is enjoying a much better start here than he did when he signed with the Dodgers as a free agent following the '04 season. Drew opened 2005 by going 0 for 22 through his first five games, before getting two hits against the Diamondbacks. He hit .356 (21 for 59) the rest of April.

"Just bad timing," Drew said. "I was hitting the ball all over the place and they were just outs instead of hits. I figured out in my head that I had eight balls taken away from me that were hits."

Drew, on batting behind David Ortiz and Manny Ramírez: "It's nice to be surrounded by good players. It makes the season flow easier. Situations arise where if you don't get the job done, the person ahead of you or the person behind you will pick you up.

"In the big leagues, you still have to hit the fastball, curveball, slider, splitters, knuckleballs. At some point, it's just between you and the pitcher, not between you and who's on deck or you and who's on first. You still have to have the mentality to play the game right, take good quality at-bats, whether you're hitting leadoff or ninth or anywhere in between.

"Still, there's something to be said for the lineup we have. I had a couple of catchers in spring training say, 'Man, you guys got a good lineup.' "

The Double A Portland Sea Dogs called off scheduled weekend games, making it four consecutive days of being unable to play because of snow. Enterprising front-office employees built snowmen at every position on the diamond, including a batter, catcher, and umpire at home plate . . . No. 1 draft pick Daniel Bard had a rough pro debut for the Single A Lancaster JetHawks, getting lifted after 67 pitches while retiring just eight batters. Bard, the former University of North Carolina star, gave up four runs on six hits, including a three-run home run by Taylor Teagarden, while walking one and striking out one . . . Terrific outing by Devern Hansack Friday night for Pawtucket, as he whiffed 10 in 5 2/3 innings while allowing just a run on four hits and a walk . . . The Sox have a roster decision to make when Mike Timlin returns, which is scheduled for Tuesday, assuming he reports no ill effects from his one inning for Pawtucket last night. The logical candidate would appear to be Javier Lopez, who has options and is one of three lefties in the pen.

Curt Schilling, who pitches tonight, has never lost to the Rangers (4-0, 3.82 ERA) in eight appearances, including three starts. The only other time he pitched here was in the 2006 season opener (two runs in seven innings) . . . Alex Cora is expected to draw a start at second base tonight . . . Francona was irked by the Opening Day confusion Friday during pregame introductions. "Makes us look sloppy, which we weren't," he said of the confusion that resulted in many Sox players not being present when their names were called . . . Sox Hall of Fame second baseman Bobby Doerr turned 89 yesterday.