Yes, but you can't do that if Dice-K says he isn't injured. You can't just willy-nilly put crazy Aunt Esther in the attic this way in major league baseball.

The interesting thing about all of this is that the Japanese culture is very heavy into shame and letting people down, and not wanting to do that. It would be interesting to know if Dice-K is getting to the point that he thinks that he has to be shelved, injury or not. But the issue is that there has to be a face-saving way found within the rules to do it. I know, people say "the heck with face-saving, just get him out of the rotation." But the Sox know that they want to be able to deal with future Japanese players, so they need to work within the cultural norms somehow. OK, I'm game: How does Bay hit a ground rule double to deep left in Fenway Park? Did he hit it into one of the holes in the scoreboard?