Wow! It has been an exciting offseason thus far. Already we have Pujols & CJ going to the Angels, Reyes & Buerhle to the Marlins, Cuddyer to the Rockies, Cahill & Kubel to the Diamondbacks, Furcal signing w/the Cardinals & Rollins continuing w/the Phillies, Epstein w/the Cubs & Valentine w/the Red Sox, Yu Darvish a probable Texas Ranger, and so much more excitement ...
Where will Prince Fielder end up? Where will Gio Gonzales end up? What will Theo Epstein's strategy be? Why have the Yankees & Red Sox been so quiet? Will Adam Wainwright be ready?
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Lee [Cowboy]
Cowboy et al,
ReplyDeleteHow good do you think Darvish will be in the AL? I think he will be one of the 5 best pitchers in the league. Just remember that Daisuke Matsuzaka won 15 in 2007 (first year in the AL) and was 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA in 2008 before he started having arm issues in 2009.
Yu Darvish's numbers in Japan make Daisuke's pale in comparison. Five consecutive years where his highest ERA was 1.88 including 1.44 this season. In comparison, Daisuke's best two years were 2.30 and 2.13 in 2005 and 2006, the last two years in Japan. Plus Darvish's hits/9 and Ks/9 were considerably better than Daisuke. Importantly, Darvish worked a lot less innnings than Daisuke: Darvish never worked more than 207 IP in a season until he threw 232 this year at age 25 (the sure sign that he would be posted) compared to Daisuke being abused for 240 IP at age 20.
Plus Darvish is a large 6'5" and 225 lbs with very large hands. Compare this to Daisuke who is generously listed listed at 6'0" and 185 lbs and has relatively small hands. This is important since the U.S. baseball is slightly larger than that used in Japan and Darvish's long fingers allow him to have greater movement on his pitches.
Also Darvish will have the advantage of pitching in the AL West where the Rangers get to face the hapless Mariners (last in the AL in runs scored) and A's (12th of 14 AL teams) for 38 games, plus another 19 against the Angels (10th in the AL in scoring) who even with King Albert added will still be in the bottom half of the AL in scoring. Not as tough as Daisuke pitching in the AL East vs the Yankees and Toronto.
Darvish, backed by a very good Texas offense, should easility win 15 and could be among the league leaders in ERA.
Woody3715:
ReplyDeleteGood stuff again Woody3715! I agree w/most everything you say. Additionally in his favor is that he will have the support of Nolan Ryan, Mike Maddox,& Ron Washington. As well, it's my understanding that he is of solid character w/a strong ''team attitude.'' He is big, strong, & young. He purportedly has 4 pitches & can locate them. I predict 16 wins in 2012, w/ several 20 win seasons in his future. There is a new era on it's way & i believe that Mike Stanton, Stephen Strasburg, & Yu Darvish will be at it's forefront ...
I think the one issue Darvish has is that, although he throws strikes, he often misses location. In Japan his stuff is so overpowering that it hasn't mattered but I think in Darvish's first season in the majors: (1) he'll have increased walks since batters won't chase his stuff outside the zone and (2) he'll give up a lot more HRs due to missed location out over the plate. I agree with you that a new generation of young stars is coming and that's very exciting for baseball.
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