The Daily Darvish: The way Yu look tonight

Tom Verducci wrote a long profile of Derek Jeter in this week’s Sports Illustrated, which also appeared online.

In it, Jeter made this claim:

“When we were at the town hall,” says Jeter, referring to an event when he took questions from season ticket holders last December, “one of the fans said, ‘All you needed to do was sign two pitchers.’ I said, ‘Okay, who are those two pitchers?’ He couldn’t answer. You could have added two pitchers to this team and they still wouldn’t have won.”

Jake Arrieta and Yu Darvish, the top free agent pitchers?

“No,” Jeter says. “They still wouldn’t have won. So you just dig a bigger hole, and eventually you have to get out of it. That’s a lot of work.”

I thought that was ridiculous when I read this article. Sign both of those pitchers and just about any team would be a contender. This is backed up by facts:

Eno Sarris is correct, I think. The Marlins won 77 games last year and as late as August 27 were three games over .500 and only 4½ games out of a wild-card spot. If they had kept the guys they traded and signed both those pitchers, they’re absolutely wild-card contenders in 2018.

Want to do a rebuild, Derek? Fine, but don’t be disingenuous about it.

We have heard previously about new Cubs catcher Chris Gimenez’ friendship with Darvish from their time together with the Rangers. Gimenez told a Chicago radio show he’s still trying to recruit Yu to play for the Cubs:

Gimenez has given Darvish a pitch to join him with the Cubs, though he also has given context to what the Twins could offer. He has been respectful of the decision Darvish will have to make but also is working to recruit him for the Cubs.

“I was honest with (Darvish),” Gimenez said. “And I think that’s kind of my job as a friend, to kind of lead those guys in the direction where I might feel they have the best opportunity to be successful, because that’s kind of the ultimate goal. He’s going to make the best decision for him. I wish he would make it already, because I think that could help a lot of things going down here down the line in the trickle-down effect. But I give him credit to sticking to his guns.”

Then, there’s this:

The Cubs are “the team that’s sort of laying in the weeds” in the Darvish sweepstakes, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported on MLB Network, saying that the sources he’s spoken to seem to believe that the right-hander will end up with Chicago.

According to Feinsand, it seems like Darvish wants to go to a big-market team like the Cubs, Yankees or Dodgers -- and that, while Darvish has been waiting for New York and Los Angeles to get involved, neither has jumped into the bidding and don’t appear likely to do so.

If it’s true that Darvish wants to play in a big market, that would seem to eliminate the Brewers and Twins from consideration.

As always, we await developments.

Friday night, I created this StoryStream which contains (and will continue to contain in the future) all the Daily Darvish posts, so you can look back on them if you are so inclined. I didn’t realize until I went back to create the stream that today’s edition is the 19th Daily Darvish.

Lastly, Mike Bojanowski, whose tastes run toward classic movies, suggested that I go back in time for a classic old standard for this series.

My latest attempt at parody lyrics:

Some day, when I’m awfully low
Wrigley Field’s so cold
I will feel a glow just thinking of Yu
The way Yu’d look as a Cub

Yes, Yu can pitch, in Japan or here
With a great fastball
There is nothing for me, but to want Yu
As a Cub when baseball starts

And thus, today’s music selection (scroll in about one minute if you just want to hear the song):