Ranger Of The Week: Yu Darvish
ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) - It's baseball time in Texas, and each week on TXA 21's Friday Night Baseball CBSDFW will be revealing our picks for the Rangers who are having the biggest impact on the team .
With the Cactus League now a thing of the past, the staffs of CBS 11 and 105.3 The Fan voted for the player who had a breakout spring training.
For our inaugural Ranger of the Week, the vote goes to Yu Darvish. The 6'5" Japanese phenom did exactly what the Rangers paid over $100 Million (including fees to the Nippon Ham Fighters) for him to do.
He pitched well in his successive starts, keeping opposing batters to 12 hits in 15 innings pitched over 5 Cactus League games. He also notched 21 strikeouts.
That was all while dealing with a throng of Japanese and American media types and adjusting to life as a Major Leaguer. No other rookie this season has changed the face of his franchise quite the same.
As the team heads to Arlington, the hype surrounding Darvish hopefully will prove effective on the field. If his spring stats say anything, we will not be disappointed. His start Monday against the Seattle Mariners and Ichiro Suzuki will have all the trappings of a World Baseball Classic game, except with the two biggest names from Japan facing off against each other.
An honorable mention must go to Ian Kinsler, whose .371 average for 35 at bats in spring training shows the second baseman is at the top of his game as he enters his 7th MLB season.
Who do you think had the biggest impact in Spring Training? Tell us in the comments below.
