Chicago Cubs: What the team needs from Yu Darvish in Milwaukee

After a lackluster debut last week, Yu Darvish takes on the division rival Milwaukee Brewers, hoping to propel the Chicago Cubs to victory.

To call Yu Darvish’s regular season Chicago Cubs debut disappointing just about hits it on the head. The club’s $126 million offseason acquisition lasted just 4 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on five hits and a pair of walks.

For those of you doing the math at home, that equates to a 10.38 ERA and ghastly 6.79 FIP. But, as we’ve heard (and said) so many times in the past week, the season is young. What we’ve seen is likely far too small a sample size to mean anything other than the Cubs are off to a slow start in 2018.

Darvish battled cramp-like symptoms throughout his start in Miami, but his battery mate made sure to not make excuses after the game.

"“He just made a lot of mistakes,” Willson Contreras said. “He’s going to have a great year. The first one wasn’t as good as he is. But the other thing is he’s facing a new team, a completely new team. We don’t know what they’re trying to do. They’re just swinging and swinging. They just take and take. To me, he has to make better pitches than he did today.”"

Willson hits it on the head with that last statement. We’re going to get deeper into what Darvish needs to do in order to be successful against the Brewers. But it really comes down to execution.

Control – a staple of his game – wasn’t there last week

Darvish walked a pair of batters – and hit two, as well – in his four-plus inning season debut last weekend. That may not seem like much, but let’s look at these instances.

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The man he hit, former Milwaukee top prospect Lewis Brinson, came along for the ride in the first when Derek Dietrich blasted a two-run homer. Darvish badly hung a breaking pitch and paid the price. One of his walks, which came in the fifth inning, also came around to score. So, in essence, 40 percent of the runs he allowed were semi self-inflicted.

Last season, he hit more than one batter just one time – in a May start against Toronto. He limited the damage, though allowing just three runs in six innings of work. When he can locate his impressive arsenal, Darvish ranks among the best pitchers in baseball.

It’s worth hoping his trajectory follows that of 2017. He struggled in his first start, allowing four earned runs and walking five in six-plus innings. Then, he followed it up with a one-run, six-inning effort in which he struck out five.

Darvish is going to walk guys – especially early in the season (based on historical trends). It’s about limiting the impact of these free passes. This is where he failed in his Cubs’ debut.

Using his cutter more effectively

Yesterday, I touched on how Jon Lester relied too heavily upon his fastball on Opening Day, leading to decreased effectiveness. You might make the case Darvish suffered a similar fate – although perhaps not to the same degree.

Last year between Texas and Los Angeles, the right-hander threw his cut-fastball just over 15 percent of the time. Over the course of his Major League career, he’s utilized that pitch just about the same amount – a flat 15 percent.

But in his season debut, he threw his cutter just under seven percent of the time- instead throwing his four-seamer more. Every single base hit in the Marlins’ fifth that chased Darvish came on, you guessed it, a fastball. Miami hitters had figured out the odds by that point and knew what to expect.

He also leaned heavily on his slider – using it for roughly four of every 10 pitches (a 14 percent increase over last season). And, yes, it was that same slider that Dietrich squared up for a monster two-run shot in the first.

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We’re talking about a guy with perhaps the most extensive repertoire in all of baseball. When he’s at his best, he’s mixing these pitches near-flawlessly. Let’s hope to see more of his off speed pitches used to keep hitters off his heater against the Brewers.