Yu Darvish was a Cy Young candidate in 2013, and for good reason. The main problem that he had was the fact that his team couldn’t seem to score any runs when he was on the mound. Darvish lost four 1-0 games in 2013. Now we all know that the Rangers offense has gone through a bit of an upgrade for the 2014 season, so I don’t see that stat being repeated.
Darvish has now completed two full seasons in America in major league baseball, and his numbers are as advertised:
ERA – 3.34
Wins – 29
WHIP – 1.172
Strikeouts – 498
IP – 401.2
Darvish has an amazing strikeout number in his first two seasons, and we all know that is what he is the best at. He had several fourteen strikeout games in 2013, and although I don’t believe that he will consistently strikeout 14, I think we have a lot of ten strikeout games to watch in the future of this young man. Darvish also pitches deep into games giving the bull pen a chance to rest, and with the injury to Derek Holland being what it is, I believe that Yu will be the clear-cut bull pen saver for the 2014 season.
We all know that he has a large plethora of pitches that he can throw, including an above average fastball and a really nasty slow curveball. He also features a slider, a sinker and a change-up just to name a few. Some of his downfalls are his walks (169 in two seasons) and the home runs he tends to give up (forty in two seasons), especially the ones he seemed to give up in critical spots during the 2013 season. If he can improve on those two things plus learn to pitch to his strength from game to game, he will be an almost unstoppable force in the Rangers rotation, and the is going to be something the Rangers really need at the start with Holland being out.
I expect Darvish to once again strike out over 200, I expect him to win 16-18 games, and I expect him to stay healthy and lead the Rangers back to the post season, and hopefully to another division title over the Athletics.
