Chicago Cubs: Yu Darvish says #TakeThat to the Kapman

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After a crazy win over the Giants on Wednesday night, Yu Darvish and David Kaplan engaged in a war of words over pitch selection. Naturally, since it’s 2019, the battle occurred on Twitter and featured tons of stats.

Yu Darvish isn’t one to argue with people on the internet or in general, based on his couple years in Chicago. He is, however, a seemingly reflective and sensitive individual who has a ton of respect for his teammates, the media, and the game that he plays.

Which makes what unfolded this week on Twitter just a teeny bit strange, but somehow refreshingly positive as well. See, when your uber respectful, Japanese-born $126 million man decides to get into a Twitter back-and-forth with one of the most unfiltered media personalities in Chicago, you perk up and get your popcorn ready.

What makes this story interesting, besides the fact that it seems a bit out of character for Darvish (but not at all for David Kaplan)? That Darvish has been throwing like an ace for the better part of two months. He finally had an ‘off’ night, and Kaplan jumped on him Twitter-Fu style/

While it seemed a bit like the old ‘kicking a man when he was down’ adage on Kaplan’s part, Darvish had no problem getting off the canvas after his team walked away with a crazy 12-11 victory that gave him yet another no-decision this season.

In fact, despite the six earned runs allowed in 5 1/3 innings, Darvish was, dare I say, jocular in the postgame locker room. At one point during an interview, as someone farted in the background, Yu laughed, looked askance, and even called out Derek Holland for the smelly infraction. Probably erroneously, but that’s not the point.

Farts, Tweets, and I am the Kaiju! Coo Coo Ca Ch-YU!

After the game, one can only assume in the comfort of his home, Darvish decided to fact check a Kaplan tweet like Snopes after a presidential address. Kaplan’s point of contention was that Darvish had gotten too complacent throwing off-speed pitches with two strikes, while Darvish pointed out that the numbers bear out the need for such a strategy. Did the Giants do a nice job hitting home runs off Darvish’s off-speed offerings in his last start? Yes. Has the league in general hit his two-strike off-speed offerings? No.

As Darvish and Kaplan continued to go at it over twitter, Darvish pointed out that Kevin Pillar was literally the first right-handed hitter to get a hit off his splitter. This entire season.

Regardless of the stats, the point of this is that the little Twitter skirmish turned into a kaiju eating a troll. Darvish has often had the label of “soft” unfairly attached to him in his time in Chicago, but as Kaplan found out, Darvish is anything but soft, and he knows what he’s talking about to boot.

As Jim Croce famously said, you don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, and you don’t mess around with Yu. Ok, maybe not that last part, but Kaplan would do well to remember Croce’s immortal words.

While this exchange may seem pretty inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, it should at the very least be some food for thought. During a prolonged run of good pitching, it seems as Darvish is settling into his role on the team and his home in Chicago. He’s getting more comfortable. Why does this matter and how is it a good thing?

Take that!

For starters, it means he’s confident being himself and rocking out with what he knows is right. Darvish doesn’t need a blowhard telling him what pitches to throw when he has a catcher, pitching coach, manager, advanced analytics “geeks,” and his own brain.

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Darvish has had an elite run by several measures during this season. For starters, he is rocking a 176/51 K/BB ratio so far this season. Since June 10, it’s 98/7. And since July 3, it’s a ridiculous 71/2. Per Brendan Miller, his splitter whiff rate is seventh-best ever in the history of baseball, and per Darvish himself, right-handed hitters have a .030/.030/.121 slash line against it this season.

About the only issue he’s had this season is the number of home runs he has given up (30), but that might be a function of the philosophy not to walk guys. Not to mention, it might have something to do with the large, undimpled golf balls MLB is using this season.

In other words, the confidence he’s displaying on social media could very well be directly related to the confidence he’s showing on the hill. Even if the two are unrelated, the exchange in the locker room and on twitter this week showed that Darvish has overcome the rough honeymoon last year and won over a ton of fans. Six thousand likes for Darvish’s initial rebuttal to 208 for Kaplan’s broil-instigating tweet. Take that.

Next. What gives with the Cubs' road record this season?. dark

After his worst outing in nearly two months, the real test of Darvish’s confidence and moxie on the mound will come on Tuesday in New York. Based on his recent attitude and actions, don’t be surprised to see a bounceback effort in the Big Apple. Oh- and don’t expect any walks.

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After a crazy win over the Giants on Wednesday night, Yu Darvish and David Kaplan engaged in a war of words over pitch selection. Naturally, since it’s 2019, the battle occurred on Twitter and featured tons of stats.

Farts, Tweets, and I am the Kaiju! Coo Coo Ca Ch-YU!

Take that!

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