When I saw Yu Darvish make his debut in spring training last month I watched a guy who pounded the zone and showed a good 4-5 pitches with insane movement. In his first couple of regular season starts, however, he seemed tentative and nibbling and an altogether different guy.
That changed in a major way against the Yankees last night.
Showing off his full array of stuff and, more importantly, throwing strike after strike, Darvish baffled the Yankees, throwing eight and a third scoreless innings and striking out ten. At least one future Hall of Famer was impressed. Here’s Jeter on Darvish:
Some believe he had something else working in there too. Jason Parks of Baseball Prospectus -- who has been watching Darvish since before he even faced a batter in spring training -- is convinced that he threw a “shutto” pitch, or a reverse slider last night, which the announcers mistook for his four-seam fastball.
Whatever he’s throwing, it’s filthy. And what he did to the Yankees last night was practically obscene.
