On January 1st, mlbtraderumors.com ran an article about the Yankees interest in Japanese pitching sensation Yu Darvish. Yu Darvish is a 21-year old pitching celeberity in Japan. The team he plays for right now, the Hokkuido Nappon Ham Fighters believe he is a large part of keeping Japanese interest in Japanese baseball.
So far in three season in the Japanese baseball league, his numbers have been phenominal. Overall, he is 32-15, 17 CG, 451.2 IP, 377 K, with a 2.53 ERA. In his last season, he went 12-5, 12 CG, 207.2 IP, 210 K, 1.82 ERA. Each of his three seasons pitched, his ERA has dropped, his IP have increased, his CG have increased, his shutout (CG) have increased (1, then 2, then 3) each year he has pitched.
The big question revolving around Yu Darvish is his future in the Japanese Baseball League. As of right now, it seems like he will NOT be posted and seems like he has little intention of going to America. He knows his own importance to the popularity of baseball in Japan and he also has a family there.He will be marrying a Japanese Actress (Saeko) who apparently is already pregnant with their child.
People do draw comparisons between Darvish and Matusaka. These are Matusaka's statistics for his seasons at age 19-21:
16-5, 2.60 ERA, 180.0 IP, 151 K
14-7, 3.97 ERA, 167.2 IP, 144 K
15-15, 3.60 ERA, 240.1 IP, 214 K
When looking at those numbers, you can tell just by looking at them, that Daisuke's ERA was not as good as Darvish's. Further more his record, 45-27, percentage wise is just about the same as Darvish (Darvish winning percentage in decisions is 68%, Matusaka is 63%). Finally looking at IP, Daisuke did pitch a lot more than Darvish, over 130 innings more. Basically, the upside of Darvish over Matusaka is his ERA. Matusaka came over to America when he was 26, Darvish has 5 more years to go to that point. The one thing mlbtraderumors.com pointed out that is true that if Darvish is posted after 2008, the posting price will be a lot more than Matusakas' 51.1 million.
thnaks for sharing
Medyum