It’s not me, it’s Yu

[OleMissCub]

This is beginning to be a little troubling.

[Cubswin11]

From The Athletic article on him after the game tonight....

 

According to Statcast, 74 of Darvish’s 94 pitches were either his four-seamer or cutter. He used his changeup four times and his curveball just once. In his previous start, Darvish went to his change five times and his curve just twice while throwing 101 total pitches.

 

 

Guy has 29 different pitches but has only been throwing two of them his last two starts, admittedly Coors played a role in not throwing the curve and they've been working on simplifying his repertoire. Seems like changing up the sequencing and mix to not be so 2-pitch dependent could help. But maybe they want him to fine tune those two pitches early on to work off of as the year moves on? Also how about we don't walk the horsefeathering pitcher anymore.

 

https://theathletic.com/324591/2018/04/22/yu-darvishs-fd-up-fifth-inning-continues-troubling-trend-for-cubs-big-free-agent-addition/

 

 

 

Also Jesse Rogers is starting to run with the narrative on him about not being mentally tough, which seems quite unprofessional to say the least.

[Bryants Disco Ball]

From The Athletic article on him after the game tonight....

 

According to Statcast, 74 of Darvish’s 94 pitches were either his four-seamer or cutter. He used his changeup four times and his curveball just once. In his previous start, Darvish went to his change five times and his curve just twice while throwing 101 total pitches.

 

 

Guy has 29 different pitches but has only been throwing two of them his last two starts, admittedly Coors played a role in not throwing the curve and they've been working on simplifying his repertoire. Seems like changing up the sequencing and mix to not be so 2-pitch dependent could help. But maybe they want him to fine tune those two pitches early on to work off of as the year moves on? Also how about we don't walk the horsefeathering pitcher anymore.

 

https://theathletic.com/324591/2018/04/22/yu-darvishs-fd-up-fifth-inning-continues-troubling-trend-for-cubs-big-free-agent-addition/

 

 

 

Also Jesse Rogers is starting to run with the narrative on him about not being mentally tough, which seems quite unprofessional to say the least.

 

Yu himself is sort of admitting it in a way. He’s acknowledged in each of his last two starts he let a moment get to him and unraveled because of it. I’m paraphrasing, of course.

[Cubswin11]

From The Athletic article on him after the game tonight....

 

According to Statcast, 74 of Darvish’s 94 pitches were either his four-seamer or cutter. He used his changeup four times and his curveball just once. In his previous start, Darvish went to his change five times and his curve just twice while throwing 101 total pitches.

 

 

Guy has 29 different pitches but has only been throwing two of them his last two starts, admittedly Coors played a role in not throwing the curve and they've been working on simplifying his repertoire. Seems like changing up the sequencing and mix to not be so 2-pitch dependent could help. But maybe they want him to fine tune those two pitches early on to work off of as the year moves on? Also how about we don't walk the horsefeathering pitcher anymore.

 

https://theathletic.com/324591/2018/04/22/yu-darvishs-fd-up-fifth-inning-continues-troubling-trend-for-cubs-big-free-agent-addition/

 

 

 

Also Jesse Rogers is starting to run with the narrative on him about not being mentally tough, which seems quite unprofessional to say the least.

 

Yu himself is sort of admitting it in a way. He’s acknowledged in each of his last two starts he let a moment get to him and unraveled because of it. I’m paraphrasing, of course.

While he kinda said that I think a guy saying he needs to be better when things go bad and then starting to get in to calling the guy mentally weak is a pretty big leap. He's been one of the best pitchers wherever he's pitched pretty much since he could throw a baseball, he has a historical K mark in MLB, he left his country and league to come get tested in MLB, he's come back from a major surgery and he's largely succeeded and he's had good postseason starts. It just seems lazy and the guy clearly has plenty of mental fortitude.

 

Either way I wonder what they might be working on with him. He dropped the delay/hitch thing in the start tonight and has only thrown 2 pitch types his last two starts, they have to be trying to fine tune or work on some thing(s) with him you'd think. It's odd that a guy that's known to "throw to many different pitches" all the sudden just stopped throwing basically everything but his fastball and cutter. Have to wonder if they are forcing him to work those two pitches to get better command/control down a bit and then unleash the rest of his stuff off of it once they feel he hits another level with those pitches. It also could be nothing and just noise.

[Sammy Sofa]

Oh, sweet; another established good player they spend a bunch on and then decide they need to "fix."

[Sammy Sofa]

It's kind of a minor miracle they didn't try to get Zobrist to take his AB's blindfolded or some horsefeathers.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

For a point of reference, Lester gave up 15 ER in his first 21.2 IP as a Cub.

 

I’m not really worried, two of those starts very much seemed like running out of steam which I expect will improve as the year progresses. I was happy to see him get rid of the hesitation too. Doing that every pitch doesn’t make much sense to me, you want to vary your pace at random for it to be effective, like Cueto is good at doing.

[Sammy Sofa]

I too look forward to the time in the indeterminate future when big FA signing Yu Darvish is able to pitch beyond the 4th inning.

[Derwood]

I probably wasn’t paying attention, but is Yu a known hot head?

[Sammy Sofa]

That's not a serious question, right?

[Brian]

I remember this article from when he signed here, it seems relevant

http://www.bleachernation.com/2018/03/02/yu-darvish-was-excellent-after-trade-to-the-tinkering-dodgers-but-cubs-want-him-to-be-himself/

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I too look forward to the time in the indeterminate future when big FA signing Yu Darvish is able to pitch beyond the 4th inning.

 

To be clear, the point I’m making is not ‘ah yes this is all going according to plan’, but rather that it’s more likely a combination of factors(a dash of building up endurance, finding the right pitch mix with a new team, April weather, etc) that are not likely to be an ongoing problem. The Arrieta-esque lack of pitch economy is probably here to stay though, I’d guess.

[CyHawk_Cub]

Getting this when you know dude has mid-90's heat...

 

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[CyHawk_Cub]

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[Cubswin11]

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Flu Darvish

[17 Seconds]

why is it only retroactive to the 4th?

[soccer10k]

why is it only retroactive to the 4th?

 

Because he always feels fine until the 5th.

[Old Style]

Yu people are hurting his feelings with all this mean talk. STOP IT!

[Cubswin11]

[PackLandVA]

Towel drill, please!

 

C'mon towel drill!!

[Ding Dong Johnson]

does Chatwood have an opt-out after 3 months?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

https://twitter.com/carriemuskat/status/1006636747311239168?s=21

[JennieGarthAlgar]

"about" 31 pitches seems oddly specific almost like you counted exactly to 31 horsefeathering pitches, Carrie.

[Sammy Sofa]

Probably worried she mistook a football for a baseball.