The Book on Yu Darvish
Prospect Info and Scouting Report
Yu Darvish / RHP, TEX
Born 8/16/1986
Osaka,
Japan
Height 6-5
Weight 185
Bats/Throws R/R
ScoutingBook Combine Ranking (2/9/2012): #4 
MiLB.com Season Preview: Unranked or n/a
Scout.com/FOX Sports: Unranked or n/a
ESPN: Unranked or n/a
The Sporting News: Unranked or n/a
Baseball America 2012: Unranked or n/a
Baseball Prospectus: Unranked or n/a
He's six foot five with a 95mph fastball and he's... Japanese? Well, half-Japanese, at least. Darvish, the Japanese/Iranian wunderkind who's half baseball star and half sex symbol, is Japan's best young pitcher, and his upside is high enough that more than one team felt comfortable giving him a $60M contract, and that's only after spending another $50M for the right to even speak to him in the first place.
MLB players who've faced him or played beside him call him one of the best pitchers they've ever seen. His most recent manager calls him 'the best pitcher in the history of Japanese baseball.' And ex-manager Trey Hillman has said that if it was possible, Darvish would be worth 'the rosters of a couple of major league teams' in a fair-value trade. (Then again, Hillman also said that Darvish's rock star cool was like 'Fonzie and Elvis, both at the same time.' so maybe he was having a little too much Sapporo.)
[ Bio Updated Spring, 2012 ]
| Pitching History | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yr | Age | Lv | Lg | Tm | W | L | GA | GS | IP | H | ER | BB | K | HB | WP | WHIP | K/9 | BB/9 | K/BB | |
| 2007 | 20 | - | Japan | Nippon Ham | 15 | 5 | 26 | 26 | 207.2 | 123 | 48 | 49 | 210 | 13 | 4 | 0.828 | 9.1 | 2.1 | 4.29 | |
News and Notes
1/18/2012 by PeeWee
Yu Darvish finally signed with the Rangers at today's deadline. The incentive-boosted contract could total $60M over six years, pretty much exactly as expected all along, and includes an opt-out clause for Darvish after five.
1/10/2012 by KDaddy
Yu Darvish and the Rangers continue to try to work out a contract. Since any successful signing will mean the Rangers $50m+ posting fee will be payable, we'll see either a long-term contract or nothing at all. The Rangers are said to be modeling their offers around Daisuke Matsuzaka's six-year, $52 million contract, still a record for a posted Japanese player. Darvish, who believes he's a better pitcher than Daisuke, would like more than that. Darvish is right, but he's also smart enough to know how expensive it would be to lose a year of his MLB career by walking away, so we expect a deal a bit bigger than Daisuke's to be announced by the deadline.
1/5/2012 by KDaddy
Yu Darvish is in Texas this week. The Rangers have two more weeks to make a deal with the righthander, but our sources suggest they'll try to do it long before then. Stay tuned.
