Bleacher Bums Forum

It's only 4 starts, but Darvish has been bad, Deeg. 

His lack of control and not putting guys away with two outs have been the big problems that have led to:

- less than 5 IP per start, 5 BB per 9 innings
- WHIP 1.6+ due to 11BB (and 2 hbp)
- FIP 4.98, ERA+ 59

It's very early, but very concerning.

I'm willing to give Darvish the benefit of the doubt for longer since the weather was terrible last time he pitched, and no one pitches well in Colorado.

Still, it would be nice for him to show some swing-and-miss stuff really soon.

I’ve only seen Darvish in highlight clips this season. But he has 21 Ks in 19+ IP - that doesn’t seem to jibe with “usually they make contact” and “no swing and miss stuff”.

It's only 4 starts, but Darvish has been bad, Deeg. 

His lack of control and not putting guys away with two outs have been the big problems that have led to:

- less than 5 IP per start, 5 BB per 9 innings
- WHIP 1.6+ due to 11BB (and 2 hbp)
- FIP 4.98, ERA+ 59

It's very early, but very concerning.

You folks are arguing past each other.

Claiming he does not have "swing and miss stuff" is clearly absurd, and THAT, is what brjones contended.

Deeg pointed out that the stats SHOW the claim is absurd, and Deeg did NOT contend in his response that Darvish has been effective.

So, Ben responds to argue that, "Darvish has been bad, Deeg. "

Deeg never argued otherwise.

One of the problems here is far more fundamental than the typical failure of folks to actually see what it is another poster was saying when the second poster decides to argue it.  The more fundamental problem is the continued insistence of some that pitchers who do not have "good stuff" and high K rates are not, and can not be, good or effective (or "ace" pitchers or "TORP"), and that pitchers who DO have "good stuff" and high K rates are "ace" pitchers or are highly effective or are "TORP."

In his career, Darvish has struck out 52% of batters he has faced when they have two strikes.

This year, that number is down to 39%. His OPS allowed in those situations this year is .526; historically, it has been .387.

So saying he's not getting swing and miss at all is a little bit of hyperbole...but it's clear he's not getting the same kind of swing and miss he has his entire career. Yes, it's an extremely small sample this year (54 PA with 2 strikes) and it's not likely to continue. But he is not putting away batters like he normally does so far, and that's the problem.

My main point again is that it's not some mysterious 5th inning thing that is causing him to blow up. It's that he's not pitching as well as his stats look early in the game. So the other team is getting much better looks at him the first few innings, which pays off the third time they go through the order.

br, I agree with your main point, that it wasn't like 5th inning was some dramatic reversal from the previous four.  It was perhaps an amplification.  It's not like he was real sharp or in control or dominating anybody through the first 4.  Didn't he have a perfect game maybe through the 2nd, but was still at like 35 pitches or more?  When you're using up 6 pitches per batter, it's not like you're really dominating anybody.  He had a few fastballs that missed badly during innings 1-4, and some balls hit pretty hard, (the great Almora catch that saved at least a run), and some seemingly whackable straight-looking pitches that got fouled off that looked like they could have maybe gotten pounded. 

The 5th was just worse.  The control got worse, walking #7 mostly not close on 4 pitches, and then walking the pitcher, most of them not even close to the zone.  Some of the same whackable-looking pitches that they had taken or fouled off earlier, they whacked fair and got RISP. 

He just didn't look like he had any resources to work with.  deeg often talks about the 7 pitches and all that, but in the fifth he looked like he had zero pitches that he could control or throw for strikes, other than an occasional straight fastball, and that without location, and that only sometimes (not versus #7 or the pitcher.) 

I'm hopeful that he'll pitch some better games in due time.  When he pitches about 60 degrees, and pitches outside of denver too, maybe we'll see a guy who can pitch well sometimes. 

I don't like Javy's defense at SS on routine plays. He plays those into errors too often.

Almora robbed Arenado of an RBI double or triple with an amazing catch, but he looks like he might be hurt too.

I don't know why teams want to move fences in and create more home runs; they deprive fans of the excitement that comes with these long drives to vast outfield spaces.  Even if Almora hadn't caught it, we would have seen an extra-base hit with baserunners and outfielders running all over the place instead of just looking up like they would with a homer.

How many more years of Heyward?