What Did I Tell You Guys About Yu Darvish

As my friend Pete would say "You've been talking about Yu Darvish for years", I've been telling any baseball person who would listen that Yu Darvish was the real deal regardless of whether he pitched in the perceived inferior Nippon Professional Baseball League. The Japanese are real stingy when it comes to giving praise and when I hear that many Japanese baseball people feel that Darvish was the best pitcher to ever throw in Japan that's saying something.

Consider this, from 2005-2011, Darvish compiled a 93-38 record with a 1.99 ERA, 916 Hits allowed, 1260 strikeouts with 333 walks (a little less than 4-1 K's to BB ratio) with a WHIP of 0.98. He started 164 games during that time and completed 55 of them with 18 shutouts. His highest ERA in the last five seasons was 1.88. 1.88!!! Now, if you're interested in all the advanced metrics which are beyond my realm of jurisdiction, you can click on this link: Yu Darvish stat spreadsheet. You can also access The Steal of Home's article entitled What Will Yu Darvish’s NPB Stats Look Like in the Major Leagues? for a much more advanced analysis on Darvish.

In this game against the New York Yankees, Darvish went 8.1 innings, threw 119 pitches, struck out 10, walked two and game up 7 hits. He exited the game with a run one first. So far Darvish is 3-0 in 4 starts with a 2.42 ERA in 26 innings pitched with 21 strikeouts and 15 walks. This is his best start yet.

Unfortunately I'm somewhat of an old school person and I adhere to the eye test analysis of a ballplayer. I'll leave the advanced methods of Baseball analysis to the Bill James' and sabermetricians of the world. For those of you who know me, I find a way to watch as much Baseball as I can, including finding International Baseball. The NPB is no exception. I even own the Pro Yakyu Spirits game for the PS3. Does that make me an expert? By no means, but I've seen how this kid can pitch. I think he can pitch at any level and so far, he has shown that. I believe that he will be to Japanese pitchers what Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui was for Japanese hitters/position players.Is he worth the $111 million invested in him between the contract and the posting fee? We'll know that after the 2018 season.

FH

For Further Reading
- Click Here for Yu Darvish's MLB page
- Click Here to access Yu Darvish's Japanese Statistics from Japaneseplayers.com