Yu Darvish signed with the Texas Rangers out of the Nippon Professional Baseball League of Japan for six years and $56M with a $51.7M posting fee going to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (Ham Fighters? Do they fight pigs or are they fighting pigs, or am I missing something here). He throws something like twenty different pitches. He sits at 93 mph and touches 97 mph. When Darvish pitches, Rangers fans need to bring extra K signs to the game.
Aaron Cook is not Yu Darvish. He might be the polar opposite Yu Darvish actually. He was almost as likely to be pitching in the NPL as the major leagues this year. The Red Sox didn’t even give him a major league contract. He has basically one pitch. When Cook is pitching, if you accidentally leave all your K signs at home, don’t worry, it probably wouldn’t even come up.
He might not have Darvish’s stuff, but Cook also doesn’t have his walks. On a hot summer night, keeping the ball on the ground and not walking anyone isn’t the worst strategy. Now, will Cook actually do that?
Ryan Kalish is in right field and Cody Ross is the DH, but otherwise, this lineup is pretty much what we have come to expect.