Results tagged ‘ Yu Darvish ’
A Grimm start for Texas helps Detroit win
The Detroit Tigers struck early and often against Justin Grimm, who started for the Texas Rangers. It was only the second major league appearance of his career, and one he’d probably like to forget.
Grimm was unable to make it through the second inning before Tigers tagged him for eight hits and six runs. That was more than enough run support for the Tigers, who got plenty of run support for Rick Porcello.
Porcello looked good for his second straight outing, pitching six innings and allowing just one run. The win for Porcello is only the 5th of the year, who is looking to find more consistency from his outings. He did an excellent job of keeping the Rangers off balance and preventing them from putting runs on the board.
It’s got to be a good feeling for Porcello. The last time he faced the Rangers, he allowed nine runs in just one inning.
The Tigers will look to continue their winning ways, as Drew Smyly (2-2 3.96 ERA) will face Yu Darvish (9-4 3.45 ERA). Who will win game two of the 2011 ALCS rematch? Tune in to Fox Sports Detroit tomorrow at 8:05 to find out.
AL Rookie of the Year (so far)
Every year there seems to be a preseason frontrunner to win the AL Rookie of the Year for , and this year is no exception. A lot of people predicted that the award would go to Jesus Montero, Yu Darvish, Yoenis Cespedes or even Mike Trout. However, there’s someone else that you should be watching closely.
Drew Smyly came out relative obscurity (unless you’re a baseball nerd like myself) to having himself a phenomenal year. I don’t want to over hype anything he’s done so far, but the numbers just don’t lie.
In four starts with the Tigers, Smyly is 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA. What’s more impressive, is the fact that two of his starts have come against arguably the best two teams in the American League.
His last start was in Yankee Stadium where he pitched six innings while allowing only two hits and one run en route to earning his first Major League win. In the start before that, he held the Rangers to just one run in six innings, only to get a no decision.
As a Detroit fan, I’ve been thoroughly impressed with what I’ve seen so far, and it’s a shame that he hasn’t gotten the recognition that he deserves. I’m not worried, because if he keeps like pitching like this, he’ll have an excellent chance of winning the AL Rookie of the Year.
Don’t mess with Texas
In 2010, the Texas Rangers made it to the World Series and they lost. In 2011, the Rangers once again made it to the World Series, only to lose again. Will 2012 be the year that the Rangers finally win it all, or will there be disappointment once again?
I’m sure you’ve all heard it by now, but if you haven’t, the Rangers twice came within one strike of winning the World Series last year. Unfortunately those strikes were never recorded, and the St. Louis Cardinals ended up being champions. The Rangers refused to sit idly by, and made a few big moves during the offseason.
After losing C.J. Wilson to free agency, the Rangers went all out and signed Yu Darvish to a six year sixty-million dollar contract. That’s also not including the nearly 50 million dollars the Rangers had to pay in order to negotiate with Darvish.
It’ll be interesting to see how Darvish will fare in Major League Baseball, as we’ve witnessed his potential control problems, as well as his ability to be dominant against even the best hitters in baseball. In his last outing against the Yankees, Darvish struck out ten hitters in eight innings without allowing a run. If Darvish can be consistently dominant, he’ll be more than worth every dollar they spent on him.
In another surprising move, the Rangers signed Joe Nathan to a two-year deal to be their closer and moved Neftali Feliz to the rotation. I’m curious if that’ll be a good move in the end, as Nathan hasn’t pitched a full season since recovering from Tommy John surgery, and Feliz hasn’t thrown more than 70 innings in any season of his career.
Perhaps the best part of the Rangers is their lineup, and that’s why I’m saving it for last. From top to bottom, the Rangers have arguably the best offensive team in all of baseball. You have Ian Kinsler leading off who will likely hit at least 25 home runs and steal 25 bases. When you have players such as Elvis Andrus, Josh Hamilton, Adrian Beltre, Mike Napoli and Michael Young in your lineup, you’re not going to find any weaknesses.
As much as it pains me to say this, I do think that the Rangers are currently the best team in all of Major League Baseball. This isn’t to say that they can’t be defeated, but it’s not going to be easy.
Fun fact: The Texas Rangers have only retired the number of one former player, and that’s the number 34 of Nolan Ryan.
A preview of Yu and his big debut
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited about tomorrow. In what will be one of the biggest stories of the baseball year, Yu Darvish will make his Major League debut when he pitches against the Seattle Mariners.
There’s a lot of speculation and predictions as to how successful Darvish will be in 2012, and the answers seem to very quite a bit. Some experts have predicted a Cy Young worthy performance, whereas others speculate whether he can be anything above a middle of the rotation starter.
If you look at Darvish’s career numbers in Japan, they show how dominant he was in. Over the course of seven seasons, Darvish went 93-38 with a 1.99 ERA. The argument could (and should) be made that the quality of baseball in Japan doesn’t compare to that of the Major Leagues, so all stats should be taken in perspective.
Obviously the Texas Rangers thought highly enough of Darvish to not only post over 50 million dollars to negotiate with Darvish, but also signed him to a six-year 60 million dollar contract. There’s not too many pitchers who are worth nearly 20 million dollars a year, so there’s certainly a great amount of risk in signing Darvish.
I’ll admit to being a bit of a skeptic. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’ll post decent enough numbers in his rookie season, but it’s hard for me to reasonably expect him to post an ERA below 3.50 and win more than 17 games. I’m not saying it can’t or won’t be done, you just wouldn’t see me bet on either of those. What I do know is I’ll be watching tomorrow night with a great deal of curiosity.
So when Yu makes his debut, how do you think you think he’ll do?
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
For a lot of reasons, 2012 is going to be a very interesting year in Major League Baseball. If you’re looking for stories, or things to look for, there’s no shortage of subjects. Here are some of the things I’m looking forward to most.
Are the Miami Marlins for real? Sure, they got a new stadium, and spent a lot of money to bring in players like Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell. They traded for Carlos Zambrano, and even convinced Hanley Ramirez to play third base. Oh, did I forget to mention they had to trade for their head coach, the outspoken Ozzie Guillen. The question is will the Marlins be competing for a playoff spot in 2012, or are the Phillies, Braves and Nationals going to be too much for them to handle.
Is Yoenis Cespedes going to live up to the hype? I doubt any videos posted of Cespedes will create as big of a buzz as his now famous showcase video, but there’s plenty of reason for Oakland fans to be excited about the biggest Cuban import since…well, I’m not sure. There’s a lot of critics who felt that Oakland overpaid for an unproven talent, but time will tell if Billy Beane chose wisely.
Is Yu worth the money? The Texas Rangers spent a ton of money to bring Yu Darvish to Major League Baseball, and has generated a ton of publicity for doing so. Depending who you talk to, they either think Darvish will be another bust from Japan, or he’ll be competing for the AL Cy Young this year. I’m not sold on all the hype, but refuse to hold any concrete judgment until I see him face Major League hitters.
Like father, like son. Detroit fans were absolutely shocked when it was announced that Prince Fielder had agreed to a nine-year deal worth over 200 million dollars. Fielder has big shoes to fill, playing for a city that loved his father dearly when he was a member of the Tigers back during the early to mid 90s. Bringing in Fielder means that Miguel Cabrera will now be playing third base for Detroit, and even though there’s concerns about what the Tigers defense will look like, there’s no doubt that they’ll have one of the best lineups in baseball.
There’s so many other things, like will the Red Sox rebound from a tumultuous 2011? Will Adam Dunn rebound to be the hitter Chicago thought he would be? Will Jamie Moyer pitch until he’s 60? Okay, maybe not so much the last one, but there’s definitely a lot of interesting things happening in Major League Baseball this year. What are you looking forward to most?
Brad Jeffers
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