Nolan Writin' » Recaps

Yu Darvish Is A God Amongst Men

Eric Reining — Mon, 06 May 2013 08:44:40 +0000

Yu Darvish, your master

Here is what I wrote about Yu Darvish on January 23rd:

Dan Symborski, who every year runs his ZIPS projection system, has Darvish at 193.0 IP, with 226 K’s, 86 BB’s, an ERA of 3.4, and 5.7 WAR. I’m not saying this is who Darvish will be in 2013, but if [Symborski's computer] is accurate, we’re looking at a top-of-the-rotation Cy Young candidate.

If you’re asking me, which I don’t know why you would, I see him surpassing these projections. When the Rangers dished out north of $100 million to ascertain Darvish’s services before last year, they weren’t only paying for a TORP, or an ace, they were paying for the best pitcher in the Major Leagues. His first few months last year, where it seemed like he was walking 4 or 5 hitters a game, were painful to watch. It was enough to give the casual Rangers fan pause, and to question if the organization had made a grave mistake in the longterm.

I’m expecting a dominant sophomore season from the Japanese import, perhaps putting him in the same class as Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez, and Clayton Kershaw.

* * *

I won’t pat myself on the back, even though I want to, because I wasn’t the only one to expect this type of success from Yu Darvish. Last year Keith Law predicted him to be the Rookie of the Year and Cy Yound Award winner. Today Jason Parks tweeted the image below:

So yeah, good things, basically.

Today the Rangers defeated the Red Sox 4-3 in dramatic walk-off fashion, with Yu Darvish stealing the show in what was ultimately a no-decision. Darvish went 7.0 innings (throwing a career-high 127 pitches), allowing 3 runs on 4 hits, walking 2 and striking out a ridiculous 14 Boston hitters.

The 14 punch outs ties a career high for Yu, which he posted in his first start this year, against Houston. He’s now eliminated 72 batters via the strikeout in 45.2 IP, which is the best mark in the Majors by 25 15 (A.J. Burnett, 57).

Darvish’s 2013 xFIP of 1.96 is also the best in the bigs; 2nd is Max Scherzer at 2.18. Yu’s 2.56 ERA suggests he should be performing about a half-run better than his results indicate, which feels weird to say since it’s such a fantastic number as it already stands.

On the afternoon, Darvish induced 19 swings-and-misses, which was good for a Swing Strike% of 15.0%, which somehow is a full 2.0% below what his season average has been to this point (17.0%). To put his “stuff” into perspective, in 7 starts in 2013 Yu Darvish has forced 123 swinging strikes. I’m too lazy to look up if any other pitchers in baseball are even remotely close to that, but Max Scherzer is 2nd in baseball to Darvish with a strikeout rate of 12.36%, and he has only forced 86 swings-and-misses — 37 less than Yu.

* * *

With two outs in the 9th inning and Elvis Andrus on 2nd base, Red Sox manager John Farrell decided to intentionally walk Lance Berkman – who in his last 10 games has hit at a pretty empty .222/.444/.333 clip — in favor of pitching to Adrian Beltre, who despite his slow start had racked up 6 hits in his last 13 at bats heading into the decisive moment of the game.

It seems like I say Adrian Beltre‘s name all the time when important shit goes down.

On a two strike pitch, with two outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, Beltre looped a base hit into right field to send Boston out of town with three more losses than they came in with. The Rangers, on the other hand, improve to 20-11 with the sweep, tying them with the Red Sox for the best record in the Major Leagues.

Texas now goes on a weird little road trip where tomorrow they’ll face Scott Feldman in a makeup game in Chicago, then head to Milwaukee for 2 before meeting the Astros in Houston next weekend.

Anyway, can’t ask for anything more than being in first place, and god damn it’s fun to watch Yu Darvish throw a baseball.

Observations on the Rangers’ Sweep of Seattle

Michael Goldermann — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:33:16 +0000

Coming into Friday, the Rangers were dealt with some disappointing news when the team learned that Matt Harrison will be undergoing back surgery on Tuesday to repair a herniated disc, thusly relegating his return to after the All-Star break. It was an unfortunate blow to the rotation, however it appears that Colby Lewis is continuing to have a successful rehab and is on schedule to return to the team on June 1st. An effective Colby Lewis in the rotation would be huge, so that’s that. Now here are some observations on the Rangers’ sweep of the Mariners.

In total for the series, the Rangers outscored the Mariners 23 to 3. Regardless of the competition and other factors, it was good to finally see the Rangers’ offense put together some good innings. We’ll see if this ends up carrying over to Anaheim.
As of Friday, the A’s led the Rangers for 1st place in the AL West by 2.5 games. As of Sunday, the A’s have been swept by the Rays and the Rangers have swept the Mariners, meaning Texas now holds the division lead by 0.5 games.
In the first game of the series, Yu Darvish got the win against the Mariners, pitching 7 shutout innings and allowing just 3 hits to go along with 10 strikeouts. It was evident early in the game that Darvish had little, if any command of his fastball, which seems to be a trend in all of Darvish’s starts sans the near-perfecto against Houston. It’s pretty remarkable that Darvish possesses such dominating secondary pitches that he is able to pitch deep into ballgames regardless of his fastball command. Interestingly enough, all three of Darvish’s wins this season have come after Ranger losses.
On Saturday, the Rangers received a scare when Nick Tepesch was hit on the wrist by a line drive off of the bat of Jesús Montero with two outs in the second inning. Luckily enough, Tepesch appears to be ready to make his next start. In relief of Tepesch, whom had to leave the game, Derek Lowe delivered in surprising fashion with four hitless innings. Also, A.J. Pierzynski and David Murphy, whom have both been scuffling as of late, hit homers to support the cause.
In the finale of the series, Justin Grimm made his second start of the season and delivered mightily, pitching 6 innings, surrendering just 6 hits and allowing just one earned run to go along with 9 strikeouts. Grimm’s curveball was the difference maker in the game, as Grimm exhibited plus command and break with the pitch. In support of Grimm, Leonys Martín hit his first career home run off of Seattle starter, Aaron Harang. As for Harang, he gave up a big home run in the bottom of the fourth to Mitch Moreland, which sailed to Greene’s Hill in center field. Harang later went on to load the bases in the fifth inning only to surrender a grand slam off of the bat of Nelson Cruz. In other words, it was not a good day for Harang.
Not to pick on the guy or anything, but Justin Smoak had a dreadful series, going just 1-for-11 with 6 strikeouts. I know it’s still early in the season, but I think that any hope of Smoak’s bat finally developing is all but gone.

With No Sign Of The Offense, Rangers Drop Opener In Houston

Eric Reining — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 06:24:35 +0000

Well, that didn’t exactly go as well as we wanted. Tonight the Rangers lost to the almost undisputed worst team in baseball, Houston, 8-2, dropping us to last place — even if it’s only for tonight.

Matt Harrison (0-1) threw a pretty strong 5.2 innings, though the end results aren’t particularly inspiring. He tallied 9 strikeouts (which is two more than his season-high total of 7 K’s last year), allowing 6 runs (5 earned) on six hits and 3 walks.

Houston starter Bud Norris went 5.2 innings, allowing just two runs on five hits, striking out 5.

There were three pinnacle moments in the game:

(1) With two on and two out in the bottom of the 4th, Harrison served a fastball on the inner-third of the plate, and Houston outfielder Justin Maxwell muscled it off the top of the pressed-in left field wall, scoring two runs. With the possible exception of Fenway Park, it was a routine fly ball that would have been the third out in any other ballpark.

(2) In the top of the 6th, after plating two runs to cut what was a 4-0 Astros lead squarely in half, Houston manager Bo Porter called upon former Orioles TORP, Erik Bedard, to extinguish the Ranger rally. Bedard eventually got the left-handed A.J. Pierzynski to harmlessly fly out to center.

(3) In the bottom half of the 6th — again with two outs and two men on — Ron Washington chose to relieve Matt Harrison in favor of RHP Derek Lowe. Harrison finished at precisely 100 pitches, 61 going for strikes. Porter countered with Rick Ankiel to pinch-hit, and, well, pinch-hit he did, depositing a hanging sinker into the right field seats. It gave the Astros a 7-2 lead, and effectively dropped the Rangers chances of winning from 14.7% to a meager 2.5% — according to WPA.

The Rangers finished the night with a mere two runs on just six hits — two apiece from Nelson Cruz and Lance Berkman — and a single for each David Murphy and A.J. Pierzynski. The Rangers did not record an extra-base hit.

Ian Kinsler, Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre, Mitch Moreland and Leonys Martin combined to go 0-18 with one walk and five strikeouts. That’s not going to get it done most nights.

Being that tonight was the only game on the baseball docket, the Rangers and Astros will get tomorrow off while everyone else in the Majors experiences their own Opening Day. Both teams will resume play on Tuesday, where Ranger ace, Yu Darvish, will look to even the series against 27 year-old Astro righty Lucas Harrell.