FORT MYERS, Fla. – Terry Francona didn’t hold back in his analysis.

“That,” the Red Sox manager said, talking about Daisuke Matsuzaka, “ was about as good a day as you can have.”

Matsuzaka’s former World Baseball Classic pitching coach Tsuyoshi Yoda also embedded his seal of approval after witnessing the hurler’s workout.

“He looks better than last year,” Yoda commented through a translator.

And then there was Matsuzaka, who looked the part of somebody confident in his lot in life, laughing and smiling throughout every interaction while wearing an interesting concoction of attire. (Bottom line: It didn’t matter what his bedazzled-hooded sweatshirt and jean shorts with an embroidered dragon the back looked like. They were fitting a re-shaped body that contributed to the optimistic outlook.)

That was all well and good. But the fact is that Matsuzaka’s smiley-face spring training outlook can’t be looked at like everybody else’s.

The 29-year-old has lost one of the most valuable commodities on the Boston sports landscape – benefit of the doubt.

David Ortiz can hit 10 spring training home runs and some faith can re-enter his corner heading into the regular season. And Jonathan Papelbon splitter dive, duck, and dodge in the Red Sox’ drive toward the ‘Mayor’s Cup’ and that will put the final inning of the Sox’ final game in ’09 further in the rear-view mirror.

But when it comes to this spring training, Matsuzaka’s fourth with the Red Sox, the righty might as well be spending the entirety of it on Field 5 in the team’s minor league complex.

Nothing matters until Matsuzaka pitches and wins in games that are entered into Baseball-Reference.com.

When Matsuzaka gave up that double to Boston College punter Johnny Ayers on his first spring training pitch back in 2007, we could assume better times were ahead.

All of those walks, uncomfortable game-plans, and time between pitches. No problem. Results, we thought, would be around the corner.

Even when he returned from the WBC and pitched that first spring training game for the Sox, in Orlando against the Braves, most shunned their eyes from the pitcher’s physical condition and looked at hints that the 18-game winner wasn’t going to skip a beat heading into ’09.

"I thought he was excellent," said Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell said after the March 30 spring training game."He was very efficient with his pitches. I think sometimes he tries to be so perfect that he gets away from that a little bit. I thought he had as good an outing as you could hope. I've got to believe he's still on a little bit of a jet lag. It was very encouraging. The way Josh (Beckett) and Jonny (Lester) have thrown this spring, you drop Daisuke in there, it's a pretty good front end of your rotation to open the season with."

But because of what transpired following those days in Florida, such confidence can’t be part of the pre-2010 season package when it comes to Matsuzaka.

This isn’t a news flash by any means.

When you had a string of miscommunication with your team (and, according to Yoda, his former WBC club, which, again according to the pitching coach, also wasn’t told of Matsuzaka’s groin injury last spring), coupled with a ’09 performance which almost put an insurmountable dent into the Sox’ season, the no-holds-barred believers are going to be few and far between.

For example, ask fans who they think is going to have a better season, Clay Buchholz or Matsuzaka and the likelihood is that an overwhelming majority will be sitting in the corner of Buchholz. One pitcher has made it through an entire year of retribution. The other hasn’t.

Beckett recently offered this take of Buchholz’s situation:

“Everybody has to go through their scares,” Beckett said. “I had to go through my scare with an injury. I’m sitting outside a doctor’s office and I can hear them on the phone about wanting to do surgery on my labrum. This was in 2000. I went to Dr. Andrews and he was like, ‘No, no, no. Back the bus up a little bit.’ Everybody goes through that. Buchholz had it in the form of a humility check. It’s different from mine, but the same. You realize, ‘Hey, I’m not untouchable. I can be fazed by things.’ And it bothered him that he got sent down, he pitched his ass off and got to the big leagues and now somebody is going to have to steal that spot from him. And he’s going to climb even more.”

Now it’s Matsuzaka’s turn, and he seems to know this.

He wasn’t threatened by surgery, or sent to the minors, but the player the Red Sox allotted $103 million toward has had his “scare”. Now comes his time to follow the lead of his rotation-mates in such situations.

Days like Monday offer examples that Matsuzaka has done whatever he can to welcome people back. By all accounts, his intentions, and executions, to this stage of the spring have been on point.

But, unfortunately Matsuzaka, the true victories can’t be won on Field 5, or even at City of Palms Park. That will have to wait.