The Cubs have placed righty Yu Darvish on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. He is dealing with the flu.
Without knowing more, it would rate as a surprise if the treatment for this common illness mandates anything other than a brief respite. At this point, though, there’s not much of an indication of what kind of an absence the club expects.
Of course, there’s a broader slate of concerns surrounding Darvish, who joined the Cubs on a six-year, $126MM contract over the winter. He has allowed twenty runs in thirty frames over his first six starts with his new team. Perhaps, then, this DL placement will also allow the veteran hurler a chance at a more general re-set.
Darvish has carried a strikeout rate of 11.1 K/9, right at his typical level. But he’s getting swinging strikes on just 9.4% of his offerings, which is well off his career average, while doling out an uncharacteristic 4.8 free passes per nine. Plus, Darvish has been rather prone to the long ball (1.80 HR/9, 20.0% HR/FB).
It’s hard to know just what has gone wrong for Darvish thus far. Arm speed isn’t the problem, as he’s throwing both his four and two-seam fastballs harder than ever. His typically excellent slider has not been clicking, and he has seemingly experimented with throwing the pitch harder — but with less movement — over the course of the year. (See here, here, and here.) Darvish is also fiddling with his pitch mix, without yet finding the answer.
Clearly, getting Darvish back to full health is only a part of the puzzle now facing the Cubs. It’s also unclear just what the club will do to replace him in the rotation. A corresponding move has not yet been made.
Get better soon ….Flu Darvish.
Get out.
Flu barf-ish
Bravo.
Methinks he has the bat pitching flu.
That darn 240 hour flu
The longest lasting case of the “flu” I’ve ever seen!
Scares me that something bigger is at hand.
Valley Fever ended Conor Jackson & Ike Davis’ careers…..basically. Let’s hope it’s nothing like that…….
Matt Holliday also had Valley Fever early last year, and you could say it ended his career as well.
10-Day DL for sucking… Just be straight up
They should have a 1/4 season ‘suck’ DL for players. Force them to get their act together or get released.
**laughs in Arrieta**
He must still think he’s in the world series with that performance
Glad he is there for 6 years
This contract will end about as well as a wet fart.
At least it’s a little better than completely crapping your pants – Jason Heyward’s contract says hello.
If there was an all bad contract team he’d be the starter for sure. Chris Davis would be his first basemen.
Heyward in Right Field.
Ah—-Prince Fielder could give him a run for the money—his $214 M deal runs through the next three seasons (including this one).
Insurance
1b- Chris Davis
2b- idk Cano? Not a terrible position
3b- I think Sandoval might be on Boston’s books
SS- Tulo
OF- Heyward, Ellsbury, Choo
SP- darvish/Price
RP- Melancon
Cano? Is this a joke? Cano’s outperformed expectations, and continues to perform. It might be a bad contract down we don’t know for sure— yet.
I think he pretty much qualified that Cano was a stretch…..haven’t been too many extremely bad contracts there. Probably a little early after six starts to automatically throw Darvish there. Greinke at $34M a year isn’t too much more a deal than Darvish at $21. Jordan Zimmerman at $22M is higher than Darvish.
Yep, theres not much competition at second base so that’s why I defaulted to Cano and his huge deal. Odor’s may also be bad, but at least it’s a relatively small guarantee.
Good call on Zimmermann, he’s probably the worst of the worst. Him or Homer Bailey
Honestly for how they’ve performed individually, I bet this team would win some games.
But get Cano out of there, he has not been a disappointment in Seattle
What second baseman has a worst contract?
Dee Gordon?
Jason kipnis now?
First base or DH Pujols outrageous money and length. And Hamilton.
Catcher?
Matt Wieters, but he’s an $10.5M expiring contract after he exercised $10.5m 2018 player option.
Theo Epstein “genius” at wasting money. Jason Heyward? Yu Darvich?
Ouch
The window has closed on the cubs. Yes they are better than the reds and marlins.
Lmao
I wouldn’t say closed but I don’t see them winning the division as currently constructed probably third place behind Brewers and Cardinals
LOL. As soon as Theo trades for Machado and signs Harper, next season, all of baseball is going to be sh l t t ing themselves in terror.
The owner (Ricketts) just said that Theo has the green light to spend as needed and do what needs to be done. Watch out league!
Throw in Kershaw and we are set. Cubs print money. New hotel bought up all the rooftops.
So Machado
and Harper will be pitching too?
Exactly. And that doesn’t even account for the new TV deal that will be in place soon.
Kind of early?
I think the reason people call him a genius is because of the way he brings championships to teams
I’d have to agree with this statement
I’ll call him a genius once he does it with a small or mid market
Yea, nevermind all those World Series and NLCS/ALCS Championships. He’s a real moron. /sarcasm.
Can people like you just stop commenting. You’re an absolute embarrassment.
When has Theo had a competitive team in a small market? I’ll wait. It’s real easy to throw millions at guys because “you have it”. With all you guys saying the Cubs have “so much money” there’s no reason they shouldn’t be in the World Series. Oh that’s right because he threw money at Heyward, Lester, Darvish
Most every team has a couple “stupid” contracts. Those that don’t…..probably aren’t winning very often.
M. Cabrera
A. Pujols
C. Davis
C. Crawford
J. Heyward
J. Hamilton
G. Stanton
J. Ellsbury
A-Roid
Z. Greinke
H. Ramirez
The list goes on. Theo made a couple of these bad deals, but he’s certainly got plenty of competition
You can’t leave out Bobby! “Bobby Bonilla hasn’t played in a professional baseball game since 2001, yet on July 1 of this year, the New York Mets paid him $1.19 million. And they will every July 1 until 2035, as part of a deferred contract that the Mets negotiated with Bonilla after the 1999 season.”
Not his fault, kudos to his agent with dat sanity clause
Hey I no believe in Sanity Clause.
So THAT’S your excuse for the purported “Boy Genius” handing out ludicrous contracts to Hayward, Darvish and others—everybody’s doing it??? Lame.
Yu Darvish Pitch freq from 03/30/2007 to 05/07/2018 (MLB Regular and Post-season)
Fourseam— 33.62%—-94.09mph
Sinker———-14.61%—-93.60mph
Change———-2.16%—-87.91mph
Slider————21.78%—-82.57mph
Curve————6.47%——77.64mph
Cutter———-15.37%—-89.79mph
Spliter———-2.34%——88.89mph
Slow Curve—3.61%——69.72mph
Why is he this bad? In terms of pitch repertoire, no one has this many pitches up their arsenal. Someone please explain.
link to brooksbaseball.net
I would think by looking at those numbers that he needs to use a change up more effectively or use more offspead pitches. His slow curve is nasty but he has only used it 3.6%. His slowcurve and changeup combine for about 6%. His other pitches are effective if he mixes up his location, but i think he needs to mess with the hitters timimg more and increase his offspead pitch frequency.
famously short sighted mlbtr connectors proclaim long term contract a failure one month in. it’s like listening to talk radio on here sometimes
Yep Epstein always getting more credit than he deserves. Remember he left Boston with Carl Crawford too.
How can he be getting more credit than he deserves? He’s built three world champions. Why care about the money? It’s surely not mine, I would be it’s not yours, and heck, it’s not even his. There is always someone signing those checks. Theo has had the good fortune to have ownership with the ability to absorb that money.
An you name me a GM who has won a World Series and hasn’t given out or made a bad deal?
People are human. They do make mistakes, you know. If everyone could predict the future, we’d all be millionaires. His track record is that of one of baseball history’s best executives.
Good to come on here and see the Cubs fans satisfied with their acquisition of Darvish.
One month in, six starts. We’re fine. Dont worry about the Cubs.
Another step in the evolution of the Cubs becoming the Yankees. Yu Darvish, meet Hideki Irabu. Theo can afford to waste over $100 million on Darvish. Just knock down another iconic building on Clark Street, and put up another hotel. Theo plus a budget = no rings
He built a team from the ground up, using minimal money, and young guys, and won the World Series in 2016.
Except Irabu cost the Yankees $12.8 million—Darvish will cost $126 million. Even taking into consideration the twenty year difference and the meteoric rise in player salaries since 1997, the Darvish contract greatly eclipses the one given Irabu.
Insofar as your comment about the Cubs taking steps toward “evolving” into the Yankees: come back when the Northsiders approach the 27 WS championships the Bombers have earned. Too, if it was that easy to “buy” a title, EVERYONE would try doing it. Or would you rather see the Cubs ownership just stick those profits into their pockets, like many other MOB teams—Devil Rays, A’s—instead of reinvesting it in on-field talent??
guessing Jen-Ho Tseng will be starting
David Stearns is a genius
finishing 3rd every year isn’t really genius like
$126M circling the drain…
It’s 6 starts.
6 starts and 1 DL trip for a tummy ache.
Is this the first time a major league player has been placed on the disabled list with the flu? Just curious
Flu is code for he’s been terrible maybe 10 days of penalty box and he feel shame will help between his ears?
Is that the excuse now made for a player like Darvish who is horrifically overrated and hideously overpaid: he has “The Flu”?? Seems just six months ago it was called “tipping his pitches.” Regardless, score another terrific acquisition for The Boy Genius Theo, ranking right up there with recent Epstein braincramps such as bringing in the washed up John Lackey and hanging onto a DH-only player (Schwarma) for a team in a league without it. Attaboy, Theo!!