Texas Rangers: The pressure is now on Yu Darvish to anchor staff
Believe it or not, the Texas Rangers still have a fighting chance to turn this season around and it starts with Yu Darvish.
With Cole Hamels out for two months and a bullpen that’s struggling, the Texas Rangers need Yu Darvish now more than ever before. Without him just two seasons ago, the Rangers made the most epic comeback in franchise history from an almost identical position to where they are now. But that year, they had Hamels and no Darvish. Now the tides have turned.
Darvish and strikeouts
There’s something sexy about the strikeout. One cannot possibly hit the ball without contact. Hence the value of the whiff. You guarantee the opposing hitter will not get a hit when you won’t even let him put the ball in play. Sure, a dropped third strike here or there might let a guy get on base, but you can’t give up a grand slam when the guy has to sprint for his life to first after a passed ball. But anyway, back to Darvish and his strikeouts.
With all due respect to the work done by A.J. Griffin so far, Darvish is far and away the best starter on this team. It’s not even close. Although he has some rough games from time to time, he’s the one most likely to go out and completely dominate an opposing lineup.
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Darvish has struck out 27% of the hitters he’s faced to this point in 2017. His 41 Ks lead the team and rank him fifth in the American League. His 9.54 strikeouts per nine innings put him 12th in the AL. But it’s not all just about strikeouts with Darvish.
Darvish and his stamina
Believe it or not, Griffin has actually been the better strikeout pitcher through a month and four days. But Griffin has averaged a hair over five innings per start while Darvish has gone one inning further. That’s one less inning the bullpen has had to pitch with Darvish on the mound.
With 38 2/3 innings under his belt so far, he’s thrown the eighth-most innings in the “junior circuit.” And although most would tell you that he needs to improve on how many pitches he tosses in an inning, he’s still ranked 22nd in the AL with 15.98 pitches per IP. But if he could improve that just a smidge, then we might be talking about a guy that averages seven innings a start. But for Darvish to be everything the Texas Rangers need right now, it’s still about more than just strikeouts and innings.
Darvish and his dominance
Darvish will often take the mound with no-hit “stuff.” He showed that roughly two weeks ago before his meltdown against Oakland. But it’s clear there is a beast within him that’s just ready and waiting to go all Trogdor on hitters.
Opposing hitters are batting just .180 against Darvish, which ranks him fourth in the AL. What’s further interesting is that only 10 pitchers have faced more hitters than Darvish, who’s faced 152. Therefore, we’re not talking about a small sample size here with what he’s accomplished.
When hitters do make contact, they’re not hitting the ball terribly hard. Sure, there’s been a home run here and there that they’ve gotten off of him, but opponents still just have a .316 slugging percentage when facing Darvish.
Darvish and his ceiling
Despite all these great numbers though, poll just about every Texas Rangers fan and they’ll say he’s still not been as good as they think he’s capable of. Maybe it’s his tendency to go for the strikeout. Or perhaps it’s because he still throws a bad inning out here and there.
But when looking at him over the entirety of the season, he’s been as good as ever. To this point, he’s on pace for career lows in WHIP, opposing batting average, opposing OBP and opposing average on balls in play. He has “quality starts” in 67% of his games this season and has an average game score of 61.3. While that average is lower than his 2013 number, it’s still the second best of his career.
Yet it still doesn’t feel like we’ve seen the best he has to offer, yet. If the Rangers could get that out of him, he’d prove himself as the bona fide ace and anchor this team down to play at the level they’re capable of. Perhaps that’s been the story across this roster, though.
But it all starts with Darvish. It’s time for him to say, “Watashi wa kore o motte imasu.” (That’s “I’ve got this,” in Japanese, in case you were wondering.) Like a small rudder on a large ship that guides the vessel, he has the opportunity to steer Texas in the right direction. With Hamels on the mend, Tyson Ross still a week or two away and Adrian Beltre on the DL as well, Darvish can be the captain.
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But for that to happen, he has to grab the helm and do it. Will he be the captain and anchor the pitching staff or will he set them adrift? It’s all up to him, now.