https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/12/11/dodgers-yu-darvish-tipped-pitches-world-series-astros It was apparently confirmed that the position he held the ball tipped off Astros batters that a slider was coming.
The proper thing to do would've been to notify Mr. Darvish that he was tipping and that we'd wait for him to figure it out before we stepped into the box. In fact, we should just replay game 7 to be fair.
That's baseball. Unless they were using telescopes and video replay, anything caught with the natural eye is kosher. And good on them for noticing. That's akin to saying a guy tipped off his breaking ball because it didn't spin like his fastball.
I thought this was already known but may not have been discussed here. Eduardo Perez picked this up after game 3 & pointed it out again after game 7 that Darvish tipped pitches.
Yeah, it was during Beltran's retirement article that was saying how he and the pitching coach were talking about Astro's pitchers tipping their pitches and how he schooled the coach to change the pitchers' mechanics. More than likely it was Carlos that privately admit it.
Every time this guy gets rocked, people rush in with the tipping pitches excuse. I don't know if he was, or wasn't -- I know he got his @ss kicked doe. That's good enough for me.
I don't even know if its an excuse... recognizing pitches as they leave the hand is a skill that's as crucial to batter success as is pure hand-eye coordination and power. If the Astros hitters were able to pick up a pitch better just a few ms earlier, simply because of where his hands were, that's still under the umbrella of "recognizing the pitch." Also, anytime a pitcher gets exposed to the same lineup as many times as Darvish was... the advantage starts to skew towards the lineup, regardless of pitch tipping.
It is 100% an excuse, even if it's true. Before the trade deadline, Darvish got rocked and people thought his value would go down. Then came the mysterious "oh he was tipping pitches that game" article, and people thought he could be fixed. In the World Series, he got rocked twice and people thought his FA contract value would go down. Now come the articles saying he was tipping pitches those games....
From that standpoint, I'd agree. Its just as much an "excuse" as flawed mechanics, fatigue, or injury. Anybody who hears this and thinks its easily correctable hasn't been around the game very long. Every year/off-season, those things are cited... and presumably fixed (along with the usual "change of scene" optimism). Additionally, players always gain "muscle" when they show up bigger.
IIRC WS pitchers had trouble getting their sliders to work, due to the slickness of the ball. That could be a contributing factor to Yu's problems.
i don't blame darvish, i give credit to astros hitters finding that detail legally with not technology. just good old fashion sporting tactics.
During the FS1 postgame show after Game 7, A-Rod pretty much got Beltran to admit the Astros knew Darvish was tipping pitches. Essentially the second worst-kept secret of the World Series other than the inconsistencies with the baseballs. I think with "the book being out" on Darvish, any team that signs him has to admit they are taking a big risk because of the mechanics issues. Unless a coaching staff is able to work with him, and change him, during Spring Training he is likely to revert back to old mechanics.
Although I am not high on a big SP signing, I'm very confident Strom and co. would be able to fix his mechanical issues.
