baseball

Darvish, Cubs reach $126 million, 6-year deal: reports

4 Comments
By JAY COHEN

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Cubs have their eyes on another NLCS appearance.

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So many Japanese pitchers' wheels start coming off, or should I say shoulders and elbows, once they hit the Major Leagues.

All those years in high school and Yakkyu where they pitch millions of pitches non-stop all year round catches up to them quickly. Darvish looks like he's already on the way to impound yard.

Would love to see a high schooler or college grad pitcher go straight into MLB and smoke batters without playing their peak years in Japanese ball. Ohtani had that perfect chance a few years ago but he bowed down to pressure and lost his guts.

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Further to Speed's comment, I've heard that said before and its something certainly worth more research. As it happens, this article presents an alternative view, but gives some of the background if people don't know it.

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2017/12/5/16737454/shohei-ohtani-history-of-japanese-pitchers-in-mlb

I'm not a biomechanics expert, but pitching appears to involve winding up the big muscles in the legs and core and then releasing that power and forward momentum through the shoulder, elbow and wrist. It places a huge strain on what aren't the strongest parts of the body.

Japan regularly produces a massive group of young elite half marathon runners, but they all get sucked into ekiden, leaving Japan with few male marathon stars. Free from half killing themselves for ekiden, Japanese female marathon runners are way more successful.

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Paying this kind of money is absolutely rediculous!

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