Darvish Takes The Hill To Stimulate The Senses
By Cory Mageors
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SURPRISE, ARIZONA (105.3 The Fan) – Yu Darvish pitched in front of Steve Buchelle, Doug Brocail and Jeff Bannister this morning. No batters, just him and a catcher, mound to plate.
Bannister said he went through all of his pitches though not at max velocity.
"I saw a big right hander going through rehab, throwing baseballs," said Bannister.
Bannister said he wanted Darvish to get the feel for being on the mound, being on a full field and throwing a baseball from there more than anything. Essentially he wanted to stimulate the senses of Darvish of what it's like to be around the game. And for that matter, from what I saw, he looked good. I'm not saying he's ready to go right now by any means, but he had good speed, and good location.
Yesterday, Bannister was asked about the possibility of the time frame changing for Darvish and his answer was consistent with the front office and what this team's main focus is.
"There is no point in rushing him out there for a selfish purpose of winning games," Bannister said. "We are concerned with the player and his future."
Bannister wants Darvish to take his time and be right before he steps out on the Globe Life mound. And that could be tied to a number of things. Darvish stands to make a ton of money in free agency in the future, but he wouldn't do well if he had to go through this process again.
The Rangers want to give him every opportunity to make that king's ransom. But more importantly to Bannister he wants the player to be in a groove, and completely healthy without any shaken confidence as the biggest portion of the season comes along.
Bannister told us last year that Opening Day was important, but he had a long term perspective of building. And that turned into a first year manager in the playoffs. So I guess we can trust him to patiently build Darvish into the dominant "best pitcher on the planet," again.
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