SURPRISE, Ariz. - Yu Darvish has formally given up his flirtation with the split finger fastball - at least for this year. It leaves him with only six pitches.
Pitching coach Doug Brocail had lobbied against the splitter, but allowed Darvish to throw it early in camp. After Darvish's first outing of the spring, in which he struggled to command it, the pair revisited the topic.
"I asked him to rank his pitches," Brocail said. "And he didn't even mention it. I asked him 'What does that say?' And he looked at me like, 'Yeah, OK, I got it'.