Dave Roberts And Farhan Zaidi Respond To Yu Darvish Tipping Pitches
Yu Darvish was terrible in both of his World Series starts against the Astros. He went less than two innings and gave up four runs and a home run in each start. Now it’s been confirmed that he was tipping his pitches, resulting in the madness that took place.
An Astros player caught up with Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated and broke down exactly how Darvish was tipping his pitches:
According to a Houston player, the Astros often knew what Darvish was about to throw by the way he brought the ball into his glove in the set position. (Darvish pitches exclusively out of the stretch.) The player said it worked like this: Darvish holds the ball at his side when he gets the sign from the catcher. Whether he re-grips or not as he brings the ball into his glove was the tip-off whether he was going to throw a slider/cutter or a fastball.
The media caught up with both Dave Roberts and Farhan Zaidi on Tuesday and asked them how they felt about the news. Frustratingly enough, it seems like it was something they were aware of but just couldn’t figure out how to stop it.
Here is what Dave Roberts had to say:
Wasn’t surprised. We had conversations about that with Yu and trying to kind of pin it down. Obviously we weren’t successful… I know there was talk about it, the tip pitching and things like that, but it still boils down to executing pitches.
Farhan Zaidi also admitted that the problem was on the Dodgers’ radar:
Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi, reacting to a story that Yu Darvish tipped pitches in the World Series, said the possibility was already on club radar before Game 7.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) December 12, 2017
"Did they have something on him? It's certainly possible." — Zaidi
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) December 12, 2017
This is frustrating on so many levels, but I can only imagine how bad it must be for everybody in the Dodgers organization. The fact that this was on their radar but they just couldn’t figure it out must be haunting.
The Dodgers are a young, talented ball club and will continue to be contenders in the coming years. Redemption will definitely come and, when it does, hopefully the Dodgers can learn from this so that it never happens again.
Dave Roberts On Dodgers’ 2018 Starting Rotation
After the way Darvish and Wood pitched in Houston, there was no reason not to start Wood in Game 7. Not a second guess, but a first guess. Made no sense at all! Wood+Kershaw+Morrow+Jansen=Game 7 victory!
So, the Dodgers knew he was tipping his pitches, saw in Game 3 that the Astros knew what was coming, couldn’t figure out how to stop it … and STILL started him in Game 7????? How dumb can you be???
Surprised that Honeycutt, Geren, or veteran Utley did not pick up on Darvish tipping pitches
You’re right. That makes me think maybe it was something else, like he just sucked! Anyway I don’t see the rumors of the Dodgers having interest in signing him being credible.
“We had conversations about that with Yu and trying to kind of pin it down.”
They did know about it, but couldn’t figure out how to fix it. Simple solution: don’t fix it, just have him move his wrist a bit when throwing the fastball.
Reminds me of a Babe Ruth story. When he was pitching he tended to stick out his tongue before throwing the curve. Rather than trying to break the habit they just had him stick out his tongue on every pitch. Problem solved.