Yu Darvish Nippon Career Highlights

The best pitcher in the world who is not in the majors is a half-Japanese, half-Iranian wunderkind who is almost two months younger than Phil Hughes. He has been tearing up Japan's Pacific League since he was 18. This winter, Yu Darvish, the 25-year-old righthander who plays for the Nippon-Ham Fighters, could be taking his splendid arm to the major leagues. And if Darvish goes through Japan's posting system, in which big-league teams bid for the right to negotiate to sign him, he could give some lucky team a young, instant ace. The 6-foot-5 Darvish was terrific in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, the first extended look American fans got of him. Darvish was 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA for Japan, the eventual WBC champion. He is also the only pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball history to have a sub-2.00 ERA for five consecutive seasons, including a 1.44 ERA this year when he was 18-6.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• NPB
• Nippon
• Professional
• Baseball
• NipponProfessionalBaseball
• SP
• RHP
• Yu
• Darvish
• Right
• Right-Hander
• Hander
• Righty
• RightHander
• Iranian
• Japanese
• Pacific
• Japan
• Strikeout
• Strike-out
• Strike
• Out
• Machine
• 97
• High
• 90s
• Fastball
• 93-38
• ERA
• EarnedRunAverage
• Earned
• run
• average
• 1.99
• Strikeouts
• 1259

[zter618661]

Darvish does not throw 99MPH...he tops out at 96.

[ItsZane]

@zter618661 he topped out at 99 mph during clutch situations i.e. the WBC in 09

[Salazardnl]

I love reading these haters' comments. For every negative word against Yu or the Rangers lies a scared and jealous petty person.

[courtneysilva]

HOLY CRAP! I seriously can't wait to go to the Rangers Ballpark now. It s gonna be INSANE.

[BakerMassacre]

Pujols is going to eat his pitches for breakfast.

[dakiiok]

Including his high school career

[SwagOnSwoosh]

Can't wait to see what he does in the Majors.

[romano19renelt]

@ElmaCannonPrieto hahahaahahahahhahahaha nice try troll :D

[InternetTheExplorer]

@SallyFoxx You mean your arm action is like his.

[Koopa512]

His breakig ball is sick, right handers cant hit it. He can paint the corners with that 95 mph fastball and he can throw the breaking ball for strikes. Daniels basically eliminated the pujols signing and the loss of cj wilson with one player.

Welcome to Texas Voodoo Darvish

[SallyFoxx]

his arm action is like mine!!!!!! great player hope he succeeds in the mlb

[TwoThreeNineJohn]

We will see how he does against major league hitters and not class a level hitters. Way too much hype about this guy..I am looking forward to seeing Pujols reach the 3rd deck at the launching pad in Arlington when he gets ahold of one of those flat fastballs up in the zone.

[TwoThreeNineJohn]

Not hating or anything just stating a fact..these are not even remotely close to major league caliber hitters he is facing. A lot of those strikeout pitches in Japan are either going to be laid off (the ones out of the strikezone) or taken yard (all those elevated off-speed pitches and flat fastballs) in the Major Leagues.

[EseziBulls]

interesting to see how his transition to the MLB