Yu Darvish, after getting one of his Spring Training starts scrapped by illness, made his second Cactus League start for the Cubs yesterday, and it was just what you wanted to see as a fan. By that I mean: he remained healthy.
For a guy like Darvish, that’s the numbers one, two, and three priority for Spring Training. Number four, of course, is actual preparedness for the season, and, on that front, it sounds like everything is going just as well.
“Right now, I’m where I should be,” Darvish told Cubs.com. “All of my pitches, like the fastball, changeup and all the cutters were all up there. I usually have trouble with one pitch I need to work on, but everything is going well.”
Good. Check. Great.
When you have an arsenal as deep as Darvish’s, it would be expected that at least one pitch would be lagging at this point (and also periodically throughout the season). But if he says it’s all looking good right now, then I’m feeling extremely good about where he is. Even at age 31, many believe Darvish could take his game to yet another level now with the Cubs. As he matures in his pitch usage, gets another year removed from Tommy John surgery, and gets to work with/incorporate into games the Cubs’ pitching infrastructure, it’s absolutely plausible that the best is yet to come for Darvish.
Get the season started already, eh?