The next Dice-K coming soon?

[CoRruPt-]

Just saw this on the MLB front page on ESPN: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/etick...y?page=darvish. Watch the video and read the article, pretty interesting stuff. Talks about Darvish and the culture/business aspect of baseball in Japan.

And here's a scouting report on Darvish:

His curveball is a hammer and a true plus pitch already, but his fastball command could use a little work. However, Darvish appears to be far ahead of Matsuzaka at age 21 and in a couple of years could be a frontline starter in the big leagues. If you haven't heard of Darvish already, here is an excerpt from a piece I wrote on him a month ago:

Scouting Report:

Darvish throws a low-90s fastball (91-93 mph). At 21 years old, he is 6 foot 5 and under 180 lbs. which means he has the potential to add weight and thereby add velocity.

He throws a plus knuckle curveball along with a sinker, slider, and changeup.

His 2007 season, which earned him the Japanese version of the Cy Young was spectacular:

1.82 ERA, 26 starts, 207 innings pitched, 123 hits, 210 strikeouts, 49 walks and 12 complete games. That works out to a k/bb of 4.29, a batting average against of .170 while averaging 8 innings pitched per start.

I can't imagine the Yankees passing up on a chance to get him once he's posted by his Japanese team, especially since they lost Dice-K.

[SPTO]

Re: The next Dice-K coming soon?

Interesting, On a lazy sunday I was doing research on Japanese baseball and read a bit about this Darvish guy. He's apparently hugely popular already. In fact during home games there's a whole section of women that scream for him when he's pitching.

He seems to also be a bit more versatile then Dice-K so he should garner some big interest by the Yankees.

[Blzer]

Re: The next Dice-K coming soon?

Over a 4:1 K/BB ratio is much better than anything Dice-K has offered Boston. Sign 'em up!

[eXperiment63]

Re: The next Dice-K coming soon?

K:BB does not relate the same in Japan. You have to pitch differently in the majors to be successful. Matsuzaka's last year in Japan he had over a 5:1 ratio with 13 CG and a higher K/9IP. Yet over here he walks a lot more players. While the Japanese superstars are nearly the same level as the USA superstars, the average player is not. That has been shown time and time again.

[SPTO]

Re: The next Dice-K coming soon?

K:BB does not relate the same in Japan. You have to pitch differently in the majors to be successful. Matsuzaka's last year in Japan he had over a 5:1 ratio with 13 CG and a higher K/9IP. Yet over here he walks a lot more players. While the Japanese superstars are nearly the same level as the USA superstars, the average player is not. That has been shown time and time again.

Which makes the fact that Japanese relievers in MLB usually fare much much better then starters very odd. Any theories on your part about that?

[Blzer]

Re: The next Dice-K coming soon?

K:BB does not relate the same in Japan. You have to pitch differently in the majors to be successful. Matsuzaka's last year in Japan he had over a 5:1 ratio with 13 CG and a higher K/9IP. Yet over here he walks a lot more players. While the Japanese superstars are nearly the same level as the USA superstars, the average player is not. That has been shown time and time again.

True, I also totally forgot about the "gaijin" strike zone they have in Japan, not to mention they just plain never throw inside.

[RAZRr1275]

Re: The next Dice-K coming soon?

If Yu can adjust as well or better than Dice-K did he should be great. From what I heard he's better than Dice-K

[Korosuke]

Re: The next Dice-K coming soon?

Japanese Iranian... Thats such an odd combination

He surprisingly looks just like both.

[ChrisPaul_3]

Re: The next Dice-K coming soon?

And the next Albert Pujols is in the Pirates minor league system.

[SPTO]

Re: The next Dice-K coming soon?

And the next Albert Pujols is in the Pirates minor league system.

Knowing the Pirates he'll probably be a bust

[DTX3]

Re: The next Dice-K coming soon?

Over a 4:1 K/BB ratio is much better than anything Dice-K has offered Boston. Sign 'em up!

I think he'd like to play for a major league team...

[av7]

Re: The next Dice-K coming soon?

Darvish is on OTL right now. Bobby Valentine mentioned how the scout guy for his Marines team passed on him and the scout is no longer part of the team lol