Yu Darvish Debut: What Sets Him Apart from Other Japanese Pitchers

Investing $111.7 million dollars in a pitcher is going to create serious anticipation for his major league debut. That excitement only increases when he's never faced big league competition before. 

With the Texas Rangers committing that kind of money to Yu Darvish, the obvious conclusion is that they expect big things from him. Many baseball observers are following suit with their expectations—like American League Rookie of the Year and possible Cy Young Award kinds of expectations. 

Considering the previous track record of Japanese imports, this feels like it could be a bit too much too soon. However, Darvish is not the next version of Hideo Nomo, Tomo Ohka or Daisuke Matsuzaka. 

These five attributes set him apart from his fellow countrymen.

Big League Build

Obviously, Japanese pitchers don't all fit the same mold or have the same body type. But let's just look at a tale of the tape. Ohka is 6'1" and 200 pounds. Matsuzaka is 6'0" and 185 pounds. Relatively average measurements.

Darvish is a 6'5" figure, weighing 215 pounds. That's the prototype that any major league scout or general manager would choose for a pitcher. Those are Justin Verlander and Roy Halladay types of measurements.

To put it in more clinical terms: He's a man, baby. 

The 10-Pitch Arsenal

Darvish is said to throw 10 different pitches, according to Big League Stew's Dave Brown. I don't think I could even name 10 different pitches off the top of my head. 

Such a vast repertoire has the ring of mythology to it, like tales we might tell our grandchildren of Darvish being able to run in place longer than Ron Washington, picking cars up off trapped children or making the earth spin in the opposite direction to move time backwards. 

Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux says Darvish has three fastballs: a four-seamer, a two-seamer and a cutter. He has two kinds of changeups: a four-seam and a split-finger. He throws a hard curveball and a slow curve. Also throw in a "sweeping" slider and "down" slider.

The 10th pitch is a so-called "one-seamer." What is a one-seamer? No one seems to know. It might be from the same mystery family of pitches as Matsuzaka's famed "gyroball," which may or may not have been seen from him in the majors. 

Fueled By Ambition

Darvish doesn't just want to make a successful transition from the Japanese leagues to the major leagues. He doesn't just want to be a good big league pitcher. He wants to be the best. Like, the very best.

"I want to become the kind of pitcher that will make people say 'Darvish is the No. 1 pitcher in the world,'" Darvish said at his introductory press conference in January. 

That's easy to say, of course. Many pitchers want to be the best. That kind of drive is what propels them to elite success. But such a sentiment isn't what we've heard from Darvish's predecessors. 

His Attacking Approach

Typically, the Japanese approach to pitching is like that of a chess match. Pitchers try to outsmart opposing batters, getting them to guess wrongly or chase pitches out of the strike zone. It's the battle that counts, as Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine explained to the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo.

“In Japan the 3-2 count is immortalized. In America it’s frowned upon," said Valentine. "The pitch count is a foreign concept in Japan.’’

Darvish is probably with the right organization, as Rangers president Nolan Ryan famously has no use for pitch counts, either. But that doesn't mean Darvish will engage in long battles with opposing hitters. He doesn't have to outsmart them. With his stuff, he can blow batters away and fight plenty of other battles. 

Right Amount of Arrogance

Sure, we'd like the athletes and celebrities we admire to all be really nice guys that we could have a beer with. But some of them can be jerks, too, because they're not like us. They think they're better than us.

On the field, that's not a bad thing at all.

Darvish seems to have that quality, which he showed after his first spring training start against the San Diego Padres. He pitched two scoreless innings, allowing two hits, which included a double by Will Venable. But he wouldn't acknowledge that Venable got a good swing on the ball, saying through a translator that the wind and dry Arizona air helped carry that drive through the air. 

That kind of brash confidence could backfire on Darvish later in the season. Especially if he's so dismissive about the great hitters he'll face. But it also shows that he doesn't bring a "just happy to be here" humility to the majors.

From all appearances, Darvish won't back down. That could be the difference between him being good and being great.