The idea that steroids has something to do with Jeter's resurgence is laughable. Nothing has changed about him. He's the same Jeter with his perfect inside out swing he's always had.
hahaha I didnt quit the thread bro. Its early for beisbol. Im all about my Rangers right now. Where the fuck is Alio though? Phil HUghes is, was and always will be trash. Just sayin
Darvish is good but he looked more hittable then the Yankees could actually accomplish. Can't help but wonder how he will hold up going from 6 days rest between starts to 4 though and then the Rangers let him throw 120-140 pitches to boot. Still, I wish the Yankees managed to snag him. At least Kuroda threw a very winnable game last night.
I heard Darvish was throwing some kind of reverse slider last night. Didn't see the game though..... What's with Japanese pitchers inventing these fuckin pitches? Didn't take long for North American batters to park Dice-K's gyroball or whatever.
Darvish's arsenal includes close to a dozen pitches, including two different curves and a handful of different fastballs. His main problem to begin the year has been the walks and his control. However, he's a determined pitcher. In his first career start, he kept throwing high fastballs trying to get a strike call. Not only was he consistent enough to essentially be telling the ump "when are you gonna give me the strike?", but he also willingly switched to other parts of the strikezone when the ump called 5 straight balls on high fastballs. Given Darvish's more "diverse" arsenal of pitches, it may take hitters longer to "figure him out" compared to Matsuzaka.
His 121 pitches from last night were third-highest in the majors this season. He'll only approach the 120 range if he's pitching very well and I don't see him hitting 130 anytime after May (if at all this season). EDIT: He also went 121 against the Tigers ftw.
Saw this and had to share. A poll by none other than BleacherReport (yes, that last number IS 74). How many games will Yu Darvish win with the Texas Rangers in 2012? -15 -17 -8 -20 -74 EDIT: The "-"'s don't mean negative wins.
Just wondering if you or anyone here could name all or most of his pitches. I don't think I can even name 12 pitches. 4 seam fastball 2 seam fastball 12-6 curve knuckle curve sl-urve slider change-up circle change-up splitter/forkball screwball? knuckleball
I was doing fantasy baseball research on him trying to buy-low when I found the list of pitches. I couldn't find it before but I'll keep looking. The main thing about his pitches is that he throws the 4 and 2 seamers many different ways and velocities, making them "different pitches".
His pitches that he's used in America are: 93 mph four-seam fastball 84 mph slider (he can, apparently, throw a slider and a "reverse-slider") 91 mph cutter 75 mph curveball (his second curveball is either much faster or much slower. way too lazy & discombobulated at this point to check) Two-seamer Splitter He also has a changeup, but hasn't used it yet. He used to have a screwball but stopped using it around '06. That makes 9 pitches (FB4, SL1, SL2, CUT, CU1, CU2, FB2, SP, CH). He changes up the velocity of his fastballs, his FB2 has a fat tail on it, and he uses a ton of vertical movement for his FB's. He essentially has three different 4-seamers and three different 2 seamers, depending on how he throws them. EDIT: Source, Brooks Baseball -- Through his first 3 starts, Yu threw: 156 four-seam fastballs, 99 sinkers, 84 sliders, 60 cureveballs, 54 cutters, and 10 pitches classified as either a changeup or splitter (likely these are all splitters. maybe 1 or 2 changeups but I doubt it). This list does not, however, include two-seamers for some reason. They may be counting a lot of two-seamers as sinkers. Considering Yu doesn't have a sinker per se it must be the way he throws the ball. Swisher, talking about Darvish, mentioned that he threw a sinker but I doubt it was actually a sinker. Instead, I just assume it was a breaking fastball. Pitch selection thus far against righties: 46.8% four-seam, 27.0% slider, 13.5% cutter, 9.0% curveball, 1.8% splitter, and 1.8% two-seam. Pitch selection thus far against lefties: His pitch selection is 45.0% four-seam, 17.6% cutter, 15.8% curveball, 15.3% slider, 5.4% two-seam (which is likely closer to 15%), and 0.9% splitter.
The better question might be how many he wins in 2013 or 2014..or will he be recovering from Tommy John?
Any reason pitchers don't expand their arsenal to 5+ pitches like this guy? Is it gonna fuck his shoulder up? Randy Johnson had one of the all-time great careers throwing fastball/slider the whole time. I think he maybe had a curve that he used once every 3 years.
Actually probably not. It's more likely he has a Nomo-esque shutdown (hitters figure him out) than a Tazawa or Matsuzaka-esque TJS shutdown. Darvish doesn't have the same strain on his arm/elbow that many pitchers have by either mechanics (Liriano), overthrowing a breaking ball (Liriano again), or overthrowing for the sake of overthrowing (Brian Wilson). Darvish is comfortable pitching within his means (Japanese Greg Maddux?). Hell, the Rangers even have a legit bullpen to incentivize not over-using Darvish.
