Yu Darvish, SP, Chicago Cubs
It almost didn’t seem fair that Yu Darvish fell into the Cubs’ lap — as if a $126 million commitment is no big deal — but things haven’t been nearly as smooth as one would imagine. The right-hander hasn’t lasted more than six innings in any of his seven starts and has made it out of the fifth just twice.
Darvish’s walk rate is up (11.5%), but the strikeouts (26.9%) are still there, and his batted-ball profile doesn’t look drastically different from last year. Still, he’s sporting a 5.56 ERA (4.05 SIERA) through 34 innings.
What’s interesting to note is that opposing hitters are swinging and missing less frequently (12.3% in 2017, 10.1% in 2018), which has led to an overall rise in contact rate (73.7% in ’17, 77.0% in ’18). Although this rise in contact is mostly coming from pitches outside the strike zone, hitters are chasing fewer pitches in that situation.
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