As I was watching the Yu Darvish start against the Yankees, it dawned on me that the Japanese hurler might have more pitches than I was originally led to believe. Those who read this site are aware that I’ve been watching Darvish since his first intra-squad game back in early March, which makes me a Darvish hipster, and an unapologetic one at that. Because of my familiarity with the pitcher, I’ve been able to identify his deep arsenal, one that features both a two- and four-seam fastball, a cutter, two type of curveballs, a slider, a splitter, and a straight-change, but up until tonight’s game against the Yankees, I hadn’t noticed that he was throwing what I’ve seen described as a shuuto, or a reverse slider.
I’m not certain of the classification—Gameday and Brooks Baseball classified the pitch as a two-seam fastball. I’ve seen Darvish throw numerous two- and four-seam fastballs, but I’ve never seen a fastball that moves with such violent horizontal run as the offering Darvish was throwing last night. The pitch (when thrown correctly) will start on the plate and run away from left-handed hitters and bore into the hands on right-handed hitters with intensity. It’s almost impossible to square up, and the combination of movement and velocity make it look like a slider, only with the extreme action tailing arm-side rather than glove-side.
I was confused until the seventh inning, when catcher Mike Napoli appeared to be using a different sign for the pitch than the standard fastball, placing an L between his legs when he wanted the pitch with the extreme arm-side run. The announcers referred to the offering as a two-seamer, but as I stated, the movement was way more extreme, as was evident by the catcher’s pre-pitch setup and anticipation of the pitch (he expected run). The best example can be seen in the sixth and final pitch of Darvish’s seventh-inning matchup against Raul Ibanez, as the standard fastball morphs into a reverse slider that runs away from the hitter like the hitter has cooties. The image below shows the trajectory from Gameday, but you can also view the pitch at the 44-second mark here.
I wanted to assume that it was just a four-seamer that had late arm-side explosion, because Darvish’s four-seamer has serious movement, but this pitch freaked out and ran away like nothing I have ever seen before. I’m not overly familiar with PITCHf/x, which is to say I’m aware of its existence and I respect those that have a mastery of such data, but I’m not fluent in its language. That said, I’d love to see a breakdown of Darvish’s pitch movements to see if my eye was just playing tricks on me or if he was manipulating this particular ball for effect, as was suggested by the sign from the catcher and the outcome of the offering.
Not that Darvish needed another pitch to put in his already crowded bag, but the extreme running fastball was an aspect of his game that I either failed to recognize and appreciate early on or had been unsuccessfully executed up to this point. I was fully aware that his fastball had plus-plus movement, but I’ve never seen a fastball with legs like that. From a scouting perspective, that’s easy 80-grade movement, regardless of what you call it.
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Jason, is there anything in particular I should be looking for from Darvish, or should I just sit back and enjoy the awesomeness.
Also, if any BP folks are interested in a pint before the game, please suggest a location and time.
According to Brooks Baseball, Darvish has only thrown what Pitch FX calls a two-seamer in his first start against the Mariners, and last night against the Yankees. He didn't reveal it to the Twins or Tigers (likely trying to work on his command/control issues with fewer pitches).
Against the Mariners, the two-seamer averaged 93.5 mph with -9.46 H-break (H-break is in inches, I believe, and the negative sign would be running into a right-handed hitter). Last night, the two-seamer averaged 92.0 mph with -9.36 H-break.
The pitch to Ibanez was 94.2 mph with -8.5 H-break.
That seems a little fast to be a shutto, or reverse slider, but whatever it was, it was sexy as hell.
Any thoughts on Darvish choosing to pitch exclusively from the stretch? Certainly seemed to help his command.
Which I find a bit strange because a lot of starters struggle to get the same release point and command when they are forced to pitch from the stretch as opposed to the windup. Some starters are different pitchers (in a bad way) when they have to pitch from the stretch ie..the pitcher formerly known as Fausto Carmona.
As a high school pitcher, I once chopped off a guy above the ankles on a two-seamer that, I swear, broke more than Darvish's "shuutos" last night...albeit I was throwing into some substantial gusts.
That said, have you considered wind as a factor?
1.) If that pitch is also so effective for Darvish (as opposed to a regular tailing two-seamer), why wouldn't we see him use it more often as a backdoor "reverse slider" against righties? The fact that he doesn't, to me, seems to indicate that last night's movement was a surprise to even him. Hell, if I knew I had such a pitch, I'd be backdooring it to righties all-day long.
2.) Definitely watch for repeatability in subsequent starts. Unless the wind conditions are similar, I'd be willing to bet that the pitch will look more like Darvish's previous outings.
3.) The extreme snappiness to his pitches didn't seem isolated to his fastball. I'm going to look at pitchfx data to confirm it, but his other pitches, especially his fast curveball and his cutter, seemed to have much more movement to my eyes as well.
I didn't see this game, and I'm just looking at the pitch fx plot (which looks pretty crazy), but if he has a shuuto, would it look more like the swinging strike he got on Eric Chavez in the 5th (2nd pitch of the AB)? Kind of looks like a change-up, but you'd know more about his straight change. In any event, it's very different from the pitch he threw Teixeira in the 2nd, which could be a change too. Darvish is fascinating.
Regardless, it's an impressive pitch; and he in general is impressive. If his arm stays attached, and he gets a little more efficient, he could be one of the best in the game.
BTW, I'm a little surprised the Rangers are being quite so aggressive w his workload this early. He's def going to need to adjust to the 5 day rotation, and the Texas heat (which is coming), and they'll want him fresh for Sept. and Oct you would imagine. The O's for instance are skipping Chen if possible to give him the extra day to transition to the 5 man rotation. I'd hate for their sake for him to be run down when they really need him because he was throwing 120 pitches a game in April.
Chet can throw a 94 mph slider, by the way.
I've watched some of his first start and some of this latest one, and I must admit I didn't see a 94 mph slider. I realize you've seen him extensively so I'll defer to you on that. I know it's possible. I've seen Dennis Sarfate throw a 94 mph slider; it just didn't slide much, and he had no idea where it was going.
I don't think the 94 mph offering was a slider; rather, the movement looked like a reverse slider, with extreme tailing action to the arm side. It seems likely that it was just a two-seam fastball, albeit one that was dipped in #want water before being thrown.
It's entirely possible that Darvish just has far more control over the movement of his two-seamer, ie...finger-placement/arm-action differences that give him 1) a standard 2S'er with slight movement and 2) a 2S'er with more explosive movement, is harder to control/execute, but is used as an out-pitch. That would explain Napoli's different sign. If he's got 2 different kinds of curves, maybe he has 2 different kinds of 2S'ers. Regardless, it seems like Darvish can do whatever he wants with the baseball when he's on.
Is anyone else weirded-out/scared of his delivery though? Maybe it's what his movement can be attributed to, but his arm-action is different from anyone else in the game. I don't like it. It looks violent -- really whippy and more has far more elbow than normal. I know he held up to extensive workloads in Japan...but his mechanics scream "TJ" to me.